Legacy to Zero

18: Grinding EXP

Lars

"I heard you had an injury? A concussion, wasn't it?" my supervisor at Midnight Moon asked as I adjusted the volume button on my headphones. "I was just wondering if you're feeling any better."

"Um..." I sat back in my cushioned chair, throwing my socked feet on my bed in residence. The chair legs made for a perfect curve to rest my legs, particularly during phone calls. "Kind of?"

Then I rethought it. First of all, how did she even...

I cleared my throat and asked, "How did you hear that?"

"Oh! Your friend called me about it yesterday. He said you were probably out of it, so I switched your shift out."

I lowered the hand on my headphones, only to raise it once more. Silent for a beat too long. "Right," I said as I tried to work out who she could possibly mean. If I weren't in Haryun, I would have guessed it was Dex—but I heavily doubted his ability to pull that off.

It did sound like something he'd do, however. Could it have been North? To answer her question, I told her, "And I'm doing better now. I know I'm scheduled today—"

"You don't have to come in," she confirmed. "Focus on getting better for at least this week, and I'll call you then."

I breathed out a sigh, thanking her multiple times before I hung up. Setting my phone on the desk, I powered my laptop on. Yesterday, I'd gotten back to residence too late to think about my assignments, so I planned to grind through them like I would have with a boss in a video game, while I had the time.

Let's do this.

The hours cooled by like that, with my focus on linguistics first. Doing the homework was a breeze, after which I put on some music to boost my way through my language arts essay.

I hit the block after the first few hundred words. My blurry vision was gone, but I was still feeling the effects of the fight in every other way. My new plan was to practice—but the burn in my legs was enough to turn me off that idea for another day or two.

As I pulled up the essay's rubric, my watch buzzed. I pressed a finger to the screen to enlarge the message. It was from North—Hey. :) How are you feeling?

I took a second to reply, assuring him I was fine. Since I wanted to talk to him in any case, I shot another text asking him if he was at Prismatrix.

While I waited, I added another sentence to my essay. Backspaced a different one.

North sent me to the map of HQ with his dot pinned. I'd kind of forgotten about that functionality. But now I knew where he was—three floors above my room, so likely not doing much.

With a smile, I replied with a quick, Okay! I'll come over! And grabbed my canvas bag—weighed down by River's knife—hopefully he wouldn't judge me for taking it.

On my way past the mirror, I gave my reflection a small smile. When I was a kid, I taught myself how to smile in the bathroom mirror—not like I didn't know what it was before, but that it never quite felt like it fit on my face, the way it did for everyone else. It had become a habit since then. Unthinkingly, I wielded it every chance I got, until it seemed wrong to pass by without doing it. Nothing brightened up my mood more than that.