NOVEL NEXT Welcome to Black Harbor 1
Years-worn grooves in my muscle memories kicked in the next morning, taking over for my conscious mind. I rolled off the couch I'd fallen asleep on and immediately dropped into clap pushups. I was grateful and eager to let the routine carry me forward through the day.
Last night I'd intended to hop online and start researching everything I could on the mythical locations where Cat and Nasim had ended up. Maybe I would have walked around the neighborhood to find a girl to rescue for the quest. Instead, it had been all I could do to crash onto the couch and stare at the ceiling until I fell asleep. Alone in my starkly furnished concrete basement home, the weight of my situation bore down on me.
I wondered how the others were doing. How was Davis adapting to actually being a woman instead of just playing one? I suspected she was thrilled. If only I could've remembered her character's name. Davis had made a successful ballet artist and model, presumably, she'd have an Instagram, or this world's equivalent, that I could reach out to.
Mars would be dealing with being a shaman in a bike gang, and Cici a literal ninja in Neo-Feudal Japan. What time was it in the Far East? Ted would probably be just finishing his first day as a man with a robot arm living in a dystopic cyberpunk city. Compared to them, my adjustment was easy. I was just some guy in a city in America; that wasn't all that different from what I was before. Nasim and Cat were both in cities more magical than not, and Victor was in a secret wizard order. All of them, as long as they managed to survive, would get stronger. Adventure was all around them.
Me? I'd have to be proactive. And careful, couldn't forget that. I'd made someone firmly on the outside of supernatural society. There could have been a shadow war in Black Harbor right now and I'd have no idea it was happening and who was fighting it. What was Jersey known for anyway – tax fraud, the mob, the Jersey Devil? How did one prepare to fight half-Italian, half-devil accountants?
Going through my memories of this world, it seemed you had to have at least one Master tier feat to get into the top 5 of any of the big mixed Sports Fighting tournaments, which was the category for the Black Harbor Martial Arts Tournament. Sports Fighting meant that, though there would be no weight or sex divisions, weapons would be outlawed, and the contestants wouldn't actively be trying to kill each other. For example, I'd be disqualified if I used my Eagle's Talon to rip my opponent's bicep off the bone. This was in opposition to mixed No-Limits Fighting tournaments where you could use a katana if you wanted to. Thankfully, No-Limits Fighting had been banned in most countries in the mid-1980s. I'm not even sure how you could do a tournament in No-Limits. Even if you won, you might be missing an arm on the way to your next fight.
I thought about what I needed to do to keep myself on pace with the rest of the gang as I slipped into a dynamic stretching routine. There was a mechanic in the game called Hard Training, where you could roll an Endurance + Willpower check every day, the difficulty of which was determined by your highest Attribute. Hitting that threshold gave you 1 XP, and extra successes, a five or a six on a six-sided die, gave you 1 XP more per success. A failed Hard Training check lowered the next training session's difficulty by 1, cumulative for successive failures. Having a training partner also lowered the difficulty by 1, which was originally why I'd asked Annie to train with me.
That was way too slow to rely on. The stronger I was, the faster I could find my friends, and the faster I could find my friends the less chance there'd be for any of them to die. I needed to get into confrontations, stick my nose where it didn't belong, and really dive into the City of Shadows. But considering the message from the Producers of this show…
"I need to get hornier!" I yelled at the ceiling. "To give you perverts what you want! Because I'm stuck in a fucking PORNO!"
Wait, why was I mad about that? When I said it out loud that sounded kind of awesome.
"Oh right, because it's AGAINST MY WILL! Send me back, you FUCKS!"
I sighed. "But first, breakfast."
Walking over to my kitchen, which had been shoved into the corner of my large living room, I started undoing the dog lock on my fridge. I hated the fact that I needed this thing, and I hated it more after I opened the door.
Havoc awaited me, havoc and one very fat rat. The little gourmand had gone on a tear, sampling a bit of everything. The egg carton was open and dripping with sticky yellow goo and broken shells. He'd chewed through the plastic of my cheap jam and somehow pried off the lids of most of my condiments. The vegetable drawer was open, and while the contents were largely untouched, I could see a puddle of rat piss and shit at the bottom. Worst of all, he was sitting in the tupperware containing the leftover duck fried rice my mother had given me.
"My macros! Not again!"
He gave me a startled look, his fur matted and sticky. Then we both burst into movement. It was surreal, I could feel my 'dice' being rolled in the space between seconds. First came our Initiative rolls, Agility plus Wit. I got three successes; I didn't know his rolls but I could feel that I had beaten him, moving a hair faster than he did. My Eagle's Talon lashed out, hardened by years of iron hand training to be a deadly instrument, capable of dealing what the game called Murderous Damage. I hated that fat, football-shaped rat fuck with a terrible passion; there would be no mercy here. Again, I felt our rolls in the back of my mind, an instant of triumph rising as three successes came up.
I missed.
"What."
I'd had him. He had tried to jump past me to the ground. I tracked the trajectory of his leap – my hand was there.
"No…"
At the last moment, he'd violently jerked his body in mid-flight, altering his path to just out of my grasp, as if he had known where my hand was going to be. I played out the scene in my head over and over and weighed it against the information I had gleaned from Style Maker.
"He—He read my Fighting Spirit. The…the rat knows kung fu…" I stared blankly at my ruined groceries, the dripping mess in my refrigerator. "The rat," I sounded out slowly, "knows. Kung fu."
My eyes slowly raised towards the heavens. "The rat knows kung fu!? You monsters! Send me back! Send me back, you absolute fucks!"
After calming down and cleaning up I decided to head out and get some basics and a bagel egg and cheese from the corner store. Harbor Hill, my neighborhood, wasn't great for selection, with no large grocery stores to speak of. The corner stores and delis had stepped up, carrying an impressive selection if you were willing to split your shopping trip up into seven or eight stops, but it was a good forty-five minutes of wandering about – the deli shuffle as the locals called it. Lugging the bags around was great for the forearms though, that's what the people telling me to move out of here didn't understand. Sure, Harbor Hill was rough, but it was perfect for training.
This world compared to my last, had a shocking amount of crime. There were multiple murders every day in most cities in America, and Black Harbor was particularly bad. We're talking many thousands of homicide victims a year. Harbor Hill was roughly the second or third worst neighborhood in the city. Living here for most people meant carefully planning your schedules around spending as little time alone out at night as possible. I could literally patrol Harbor Hill like Daredevil did Hell's Kitchen and run down thugs night after night without running out.
I made a mental note to start doing that. I'd have to get a mask and an outfit together unless I wanted to get firebombed in my sleep.
I called my mom on the way to the store. With the sun shining, the neighborhood looked no different from most. People walked their dogs, watered their potted plants, and fired up their little patio grills.
"Hey, Ma. Got kind of a weird question for you."
There was a long pause before I heard, "James, is that you?" My mother had been in America since she was eleven and had only the slightest accent.
Had she picked up without looking? "Uh, yep. It's me."
She switched to Mandarin. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said in Chinese.
"Did something happen?"
"No—"
"Aiyah, James, you didn't get some girl pregnant did you?"
"What? Ma, what is going on with you? Would you please relax?"
Someone walking their dog smirked at me as he passed.
"Hmm, but you have decided to abandon your ridiculous movie star dreams?"
"Uh." I paused. That was a complicated topic. Becoming a famous actor would bring me a ton of XP, evidenced by my 'Fame' quest, and I still absolutely wanted to be the next Jackie Chan. "No, of course not!"
"James, I'm your mother. You can't lie to me."
"Gah! Ma! I called because there's a rat in my apartment that reads Fighting Spirit and can salmon skip mid-air."
"There's a rat in your apartment!? What are you doing with your life?"
I pinched my nose. "Oh my god," I muttered.
She sounded confused. "And the rat inspired you to take your martial arts more seriously? Is the rat your new master? You should have more pride in your family's style than that."
"I…I just—"
"Listen, come teach the afternoon class tonight. Kathy's hosting bridge night and I want to go. Mathew is too sick to teach."
"Really? So I'm not banned from teaching Eagle Style anymore?" She had barred me from teaching or studying Eagle Style when I'd decided to not go to college and pursue stunt acting instead.
I could practically hear her roll her eyes. "Don't get smart with me. Oh! I see the vegetable granny going down the street with her cart. We'll talk later!" She hung up.
I glared down at my phone. I just wanted to know about rats doing kung fu.
"Is the rat my new master," I grumbled. "Unbelievable."
Raul's Deli, one of the many, many stores with some variation of the name 'NJ Best Deli', was known as the apple spot. Other delis had two variations of apple, red or green. Raul had Honeycrisps, Fujis, pink ladies, and ones I'd never heard about like 'Red Eriks' and 'tree pearls'. And also, strangely enough, high-end anchovies.
I guess I was eating apples, peanut butter, and anchovies for lunch. Let's go, baby, fuck yeah. If you squinted at it the right way, those were almost my macros.
Two thugs loitering by the entrance smoking eyed me up as I walked in, looking grimy and smelling of crack, a man and a woman. They looked like they'd been up all night. I glared at the man. I'd just lost a fight to an obese rat and wasn't in the mood to take anyone's shit today.
I was surprised to see the cute girl with glasses from across the street in the store this time of day. She was black and thin and wore conservative, somewhat nerdy clothing, her hair natural and down to about her shoulders. Burdened down by several full re-useable tote bags, she was clearly on the last legs of the deli shuffle. It was still pretty early in the morning, that would've meant she'd gotten up around six to go grocery shopping for her family. She gave me a nervous smile but we didn't speak. I'd only been living in my place for three months and we hadn't had the chance to talk much. Unfortunately, my building was directly between two trap houses, which was probably related.
Also, I think there may have been a misconception on the block that I was living in the unfinished part of the building. The floors above mine had been in a pretty bad fire a few years back, and instead of fully fixing it up, the building owners had decided to keep the majority of the insurance payment for themselves. They'd reframed the building and put a new roof on it to make sure it wouldn't fall over, but there weren't any actual floors, walls, or wiring.
I used it to train my balance and climbing abilities. It had frankly been the main reason I'd moved here in the first place. There were times, though, when I'd caught people watching me from the windows while I did cartwheels along the joists. They tended to look away sharply, as if afraid when I made eye contact with them.
I was about fifteen feet out of Raul's with my groceries and a bagel egg and cheese sandwich when I heard a commotion behind me. The couple of thugs that had been loitering at the door had pushed the neighbor girl down and were yanking the tote bags out of her hands. She looked terrified and didn't bother to fight them, letting them steal more than a week's worth of food.
I crushed them on their initiative rolls. They were neither Agile nor people of great Wit. The man stood up first, three bags in hand. I did a strange cork-screw of a roundhouse kick, looping my foot through the handles of the stolen bags and then up and into his chin, the full force of my hips and core connecting with his surprised face. For basically everyone else on the planet, this would have made the kick more difficult to perform and less effective. However, with my wacky-ass build, I added a die to my pool from my feat Rule of Cool, and then added another die for my 'Martial Arts Movie Collection', my starting item which for some contrived reason improved my Martial Arts skill when using my personal style. And finally, the weight and the distraction the groceries added to my kick triggered my Improvised Brawler, giving me one more die. That gave me an extremely respectable twelve dice in my attack pool.
Alright, so maybe I hadn't built just some guy.
Four successes, three more than I needed – the kick hit hard. In that bizarre time between seconds, I converted all three extra successes into damage. The male thug stumbled back and hit the sidewalk, visibly dazed. His companion took one look at what had happened and panicked, swinging a bag with a gallon of milk at my head.
She whiffed completely, allowing me to go for a counter. I slipped my hand through the straps of the bag coming at my head, grabbed her wrist, and put her into a joint lock, arm twisted behind her back.
"Ow! Fuck, hey!"
"Stealing groceries? That's pretty despicable," I said, contemplating breaking the woman's elbow. Her friend wisely decided to scramble to his feet and sprint away. "There goes your partner."
The neighbor girl stood up, wearing a mixed look between relieved and distraught. She was holding her broken glasses and looked to be on the verge of tears. I stuck the leg that had kicked the thug out to her, her grocery bags still looped around my ankle.
"Th-thanks," she said, hesitating for a second before retrieving the bags from my leg.
"Let me go, asshole!" yelled the woman.
I grabbed the stolen groceries from her other hand and pushed her away. "Gladly. You smell like a trash fire, by the way." If this were Chinatown, I'd have broken her wrist just to save her from the wrath of the triads. They'd have had a conniption if they'd heard about someone robbing young girls of their groceries.
She threw me a finger as she ran away. "Fuck you!"
[Encounter Complete]
Defeated two mooks.
Reward: 1 XP x2 = 2 XP
Bonus, Outnumbered: (1 x 1) = 1
Total = 3XP
"You alright?" I stepped in close to the girl, putting one hand reassuringly on her back. She was as thin as a reed. I doubted she could take much punishment.
She nodded but avoided looking at me directly. "I'm…okay. Thanks for saving me."
Now, I had two paths here. I wanted to establish a rapport here and I could either use my Persuasion or Seduction Skills. Persuasion was much higher, but since I was guaranteed a success with Seduction anyway, I went for the route that I knew would play best to my audience.
"No problem. You live across the street from me, right? I'll walk you home. My name's James."
The girl reached out her hand for the rest of her groceries. Instead of passing her the bags, I stuck out my arm for her to take. She blushed but awkwardly did so. "Thanks, I…can't see great without my glasses. I'm Shania."
"That's a pretty name."
I rolled extremely well, a total of four successes. Shania was clearly smitten, but at the same time, I could sense the social anxiety radiating off of her.
I distracted her with small talk, asking about her life and giving a few details about mine. She was in high school but managed to tell me twice in one breath that she was eighteen, wincing as she realized how thirsty that had come across. Luckily, I managed to crack through by talking about my apartment.
"Hang on," she said, actually stopping in her tracks. "There's an actual apartment in that building?"
"Yeah, the basement is fully functional. I've got heat, electricity, hot water – actually, since I get the benefit of a commercial water heater all to myself, I never run out of hot water. It's honestly pretty great. And I'm paying less than I was for my studio apartment in Chinatown."
"Oooh." She breathed out a sigh of relief and visibly relaxed. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. We all thought you were squatting in that building."
"That explains a lot of looks." I laughed, easing her look of guilt. "Wow, and you let me walk you back home. That's brave of you."
She looked down. "Thanks, but I…was pretty scared of you up until just now."
"Bravery can only exist in the face of fear," I said confidently. "I used to tell that to the kids in my kung fu classes all the time."
"Used to?"
"Ah, well up until today I was banned from teaching Eagle Style. My mom got upset when I decided to not go to college to pursue stunt acting."
"What changed today?"
I stuck up my hand and yelled, "I have no idea!"
"Sorry," I added with chagrin. "I had an extremely confusing phone call earlier."
Shania giggled. I guess if there was one universal among teens it was frustration with your parents. I still wasn't sure how to feel about flirting with an eighteen-year-old. Technically she was only three years younger than me, but the formerly thirty-something part of me didn't feel great about it.
I walked Shania to her family's second-floor apartment and was in the process of saying goodbye when she stopped me.
"Wait! I want you to meet my mom."
[Quest Complete: Damsel] [Scintillating]
Rescue a young woman from a mugging in your neighborhood.
Reward:25 XP, Gain Contact (Marianne Greene).
Bonus Objective: Successfully leave her wanting more of you.
Reward: Upgrade a social feat. +1 to Sensuality
[Feat Synergy!]
Hero's Honors Upgrades Reward
Contact (Marianne Greene) Improved to Ally (Marianne Greene)
I only had three social feats and didn't have the prerequisites to upgrade my Major feat into the Master, nor the Leadership skill required to take Can I Trouble You? from a Minor to a Major feat, so the game automatically upgraded my only option, Hero's Honors. Un-upgraded, it gave me one guaranteed success to persuade or seduce someone I saved. It was already pretty strong, and I was glad to see the leveled-up version didn't disappoint.
The former feat read:
[Minor Feat] [Hero's Honors]
You have the air of a truly decent man. When you step in to help it comes across as selfless and kind. Gain one guaranteed success to any roll to persuade or seduce someone you have personally saved.
The new one dialed it all up.
[Major Feat] [Hero's Honors (Upgraded)]
You have the air of a true Hero about you. When you step in to help it comes across as selfless and just. Gain one guaranteed success and add two dice to any roll to persuade or seduce someone you have personally saved, and their close friends and family.
"Wait here," said Shania as we entered. She took the rest of her groceries from me and rushed into the kitchen, ignoring her younger brothers. I could hear someone getting breakfast together in there.
"Yo." I waved at her brothers. They looked to be in their early teens or pre-teens. I received two wide-eyed stares back. "There's an actual apartment in the basement. Two-bedroom, backyard, it's pretty nice. I converted the backyard into an outdoor gym."
They both 'Oooh'ed and relaxed. The boys were sat at a dining table, the older with some homework out and the younger midway through spreading jam on toast. Their apartment was crowded with things in a way that spoke to being overfull rather than being a mess. Part of their living room had been partitioned with a few bookshelves and a curtain to create a makeshift extra bedroom. Judging from the decorations I could see peaking through some of the shelves, that was Shania's 'room'.
"Mom said you were crazy," said the youngest.
His older brother elbowed him. "Bruh."
"Ow, what?"
"I'm Darius," said his brother, ignoring him, "and this little twerp is Shaun."
"James Li."
"Are you dating Shania," asked Shaun, rubbing his ribs.
Darius disregarded his brother but not before shooting him a scathing look. "So you don't work for Papes?"
Papes was the pimp that ran one of the traps next to me. He was also the closest thing I had to a friend on the block.
"Ha! No, I let him and his guys use my squat rack and sometimes he fills up my freezer in exchange for personal training sessions, but I definitely do not 'work' for Papes. Uh, that wasn't a euphemism either; his cousin owns the butcher shop on 58th."
They frowned and shot each other skeptical looks. Their mother had probably told them to avoid Papes, and neither were at the age to have developed nuanced moralities. Kids tended to have black-and-white perspectives on the world; they couldn't understand that you could be friendly with the pimp next door without explicitly endorsing his lifestyle.
Papes would probably like to hear about people mugging teens for their family groceries. That sort of ratchet shit was bad for everyone. The whole point of trap houses was to contain vice to discrete and controlled environments outside of the public eye.
Ah, best not to bother him. We had a good thing going, no reason to muddy the waters by bringing business into it.
[Accept Quest?]
[Quest: Cleaning Up Harbor Hill]
Make most common thugs think twice before prowling Harbor Hill for victims. For this Quest to count as completed, the average resident of the neighborhood should feel safe going about their business alone at night.
Reward: 300 XP; 3 Relationship Tokens, choose between +2 to Leadership and Intimidation, or, +2 to Investigation and Perception
Never mind, I'd probably need the pimp's help for this one.
"So are you dating Shania or not?"
"We met like six minutes ago."
"That's not a no," said Shaun.
Darius narrowed his eyes at me. "He's right, that wasn't a no."
Damnit, kid. I thought you were on my side. I looked over to the kitchen for any sign of incoming help.
Luckily Shania's mother appeared at the doorway and ran over to tackle me in a hug. She was in scrubs and a lot younger than I'd been expecting. She must have had Shania when she was still in high school. I assumed this was my new Ally, Marianne Greene.
"Thank you, thank you so much!" She pulled back a little but kept her arms wrapped around my back. "Shania told me everything. Thank you for looking out for my baby. Boys, make some room and set a plate for James. He saved your sister from getting mugged. I'm—"
"Marianne Greene?" She blinked at me, confused. "It's embroidered on your scrubs." I pointed to where her chest was pressing into mine. "I'm James Li, by the way."
Marianne looked momentarily mortified at how forward she'd been and stepped further back. "Ha…right." She cleared her throat. "So what am I making you?"
I waved her off. "I'm alright, really. I got a bagel egg and cheese from Raul's."
"Nonsense, it's the least I can do. If it wasn't for you – well, I don't know what we'd do. We're going to have to replace Shania's glasses, and those were like 150 dollars worth of groceries. And my landlord is—" She looked at her two boys, catching herself. "Not a nice person."
"I can imagine. He owns my building too, right?" I saw her face scrunch up and her mouth open to ask a question. "There's an apartment in the basement," I quickly added. "Rent is pretty cheap too. Oh! Here," I said, pulling a hundred dollar bill out of my pocket with the Black Card in it, "let me cover Shania's glasses. I won a scratch-off yesterday."
"Oh no, I couldn't take this. Don't be ridiculous."
I could feel our opposed social dice pools clatter in the back of my mind. With my feat guaranteed success and the additional dice, she didn't stand a chance. I took her hand and closed her fingers around the bill. Marianne was still conflicted on her face but didn't fight me.
"I'll be alright, seriously. I work for Runr, the parkour parcel delivery app and Fashion Week is coming up. We all make bank during it. There's like, as much work as you want to take."
'Thank you', she mouthed as she slid the bill into her pocket. "Shania said you're a stuntman?"
"I am, but it's not the most consistent work for right now."
"Woah!" interjected Shaun. Both boys wore adoring looks now. I felt my cheeks heat up a bit at the childlike admiration. "Can you teach me how to flip?"
"Backflip for sure. Front flips take time to work towards."
Marianne put one hand on her hip. "Shaun, why is your brother the only one studying?"
"Uhh, 'cause I know all the material?" he tried. His mother raised a single eyebrow. He hung his head and groaned. "Sorry, mom."
I gave her an impressed smile. She winked in response.
"At least have your sandwich here. I'll make you some coffee."
I rubbed the back of my head. "I…sure. I'd like that."
"Cream, sugar," she asked as she started to head back into the kitchen.
Time froze for a moment as I contemplated if I was really going to do what had come to mind. Ah, fuck it, it would be good TV. I rolled a Charisma + Seduction and gave the slightest of smirks as I answered, "I like it black."
Oof, only three successes including the guaranteed one. That could have been bad. From what I remember from what I read in the rules, three was the bottom threshold for most risky maneuvers, which was the only way to describe flirting with a woman fifteen years older than you in front of her kids.
She rolled her eyes, but her smile widened. "Noted."
Breakfast with the Greenes was relaxing, perfect for taking my mind off of all my quests and problems. Shania joined us after a bit. She had washed her face, but I could tell she'd cried when telling her mother her story.
We were all locals to Black Harbor, but I was new to the neighborhood, while Marianne had grown up two blocks over and had met her ex-husband in the same high school that Shania and Darius now went to. She was also a nurse at Dayside, the semi-private hospital in the far north of Harbor Hill that I did a good half of my Runr deliveries for. There were plenty of topics that we could all fill the space with, and for a few minutes in the middle, I was able to forget about the extradimensional eyes on me.
"Alright, I think I'm going to get a move on my day," I said, putting down my empty mug. I tore out a page from my notebook and wrote down my number. "This is my cell. Anytime you want someone to walk with you anywhere, just shoot me a text. Seriously. I might not always be available, but I'll never be mad you asked."
"Thank you," said Marianne. "And if you ever bust a rib training in your jungle gym of an apartment, call me right away."
I laughed as I got up. "It's a real apartment!"
Marianne whispered something in her daughter's ear as I made my way out. The girl was too dark to blush, but she seemed incredibly embarrassed by what she was hearing.
The door to the Greene's opened just seconds after I'd closed it behind me, making me pause to see if I'd forgotten anything. Shania closed the door to her family's apartment, took a deep breath, and shuffled closer.
"Everything alright?" I asked. She looked nervous.
"I, um, wanted to give you something."
"Oh?"
She took a step and placed her small hands on my chest. Leaning up she placed a single dainty kiss on my cheek, hesitating for a second before doing so. Then she looked up at me like a scared rabbit, trying to judge my reaction.
My hand snaked around to her lower back as I bent down. I grinned and kissed her on the lips. She froze when she felt my lips on hers, but relaxed after a few seconds, putting more of her weight against me.
[Hidden Quest Completed!]
You and a partner shared your first kisses together.
Reward: +20 XP, Gain a random Minor feat from the Prince Charming archetype.
Neither James nor Alan had been kissless virgins, but I suppose the Producers were feeling generous.
[Minor Feat (Prince Charming)]
Heartfelt Serenade: Your beautiful singing voice can enchant hearts. Once per person, you can perform a heartfelt serenade that grants +4 on persuasion or seduction attempts for 1 hour.
I…I really didn't want to use that. Maybe I could get into Karaoke or something, sing Baka Mitai while staring into someone's eyes.
"See you around, right?" I asked, taking a step down the stairs. Shania nodded, slightly dazed.