Blood and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  “Taking readings now.” Kyle studied his monitor momentarily. “It seems to be over 97% inactive.”

  “Counter measures ready?”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  “Okay, start cycling down the cores and reformatting them with the latest patches from a clean source. Once a plot on the farm is completely reformatted and triple checked through the new antivirus, return it to Majesta control.”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  “Gamma farm is to remain offline.”

  “Yes Ma’am.” Carelton replied. “Also, I’m sending you a timestamp in Mayah’s feed. You may be interested in seeing what your student has been up to,” he said with a hint of playfulness.

  Delilah Hobson looked around the room one last time before going back to her office. Spying Ronald leaning back, feet on his desk she said, “Ronald, if you’re not going to help then I need you to clean the filters in the farm ventilation system.”

  “Yes chief.” He took his feet off of the desk, saluted and started typing like there was no tomorrow.

  …..

  The celebration had died down. A few stragglers were still around, but they were off in their own conversations at this point. Mayah sat with her friends, just happy to be there. Grax was on her lap letting her pet him. She was very thankful for that. He was a little piece of black, fluffy comfort. Maybe they were both getting some healing out of this.

  Grax suddenly stood straight up on all four legs, his claws extending into her skin and breaking that peaceful moment.

  “AIEEEEEEeee… Grax!!! What are you doing?”

  “Sorry, Fluff I just got excited. You’re trending on MajestaWeb. You’re coming up fourth overall on the main search page.”

  “Shaz, I haven’t even set up my browser yet.” She opened her own window and begun to rectify that flaw. Bottom left of the screen. Go to settings. Underneath MajestaWeb access, type in my account and password.

  I’m going to have to tweak my settings. Surprised I haven’t done it yet. Must be getting sloppy. She looked at her search bar and “First duel in Majesta” popped up fourth underneath the game trailer, the welcome letter, and speculated content release dates. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She clicked the link and was taken to a screen where there were multiple videos of the duel from different viewers splashed across her vision.

  “Wow do I really look that creepy?”

  “Oh yeah," said Grax

  “I already told ye ye’d give me a heart attack and I was’na playing,” Jensen said.

  “You have your moments, dear," Margaret chimed in.

  “Geez, I'm glad I had my hood up.” But I didn’t see any of this blood during the duel. Must be the parental controls. Travisty looked a mess. Blood was dripping from his legs, face and armpit.

  “That doesn’t matter here. Besides, you’re on your way to stardom.”

  “What do you mean, Grax?”

  “Please tell me you know what a livestream is?”

  “Of course.”

  “Well I have a feeling that you’re going to be pretty popular after the right people see this fight.”

  Mayah could feel her anxiety rising.

  “Don’t make that face,” Grax teased. “there’s a lot of money in it. And all you have to do is send in a few battles a week. You could make more than both of my parents’ salaries put together. Enough to pay for any college without the service stipulations.”

  Mayah’s ears perked at that. The universities were great, but the service stipulations would limit her freedom drastically. She would have to look into this seriously.

  She watched the video and saw that it was a dramatically lopsided matchup. Travisty’s stamina was already dangerously low when she hit him. He wouldn’t have lasted another 20 seconds against Vergie. It made her look merciless, cruel and way OP. That helped explain why the duel felt so lopsided. I wouldn’t have had a third of the stamina I did without Jensen. That’s when she had another idea.

  “Hey Grax, wanna make a video?”

  “Sure do,” he smiled.

  “Hold on a minute now, ye grimble grabbers. We still have training to do. I think I’ve come up with a way to see if there’s a reverse Wellspring ability.” Jensen then sat stoically, lost in thought.

  “So, are you gonna tell us?” a perturbed Mayah asked.

  “Hmmm?? Oh, I think it will be better to show ye. Margaret, ye should join in too. If yer going’ta be swashbuckling around with these two, ye’re gonna have to catch up.”

  “Where do you think we should we go?” Mayah asked. “I don’t want to do my training in public view anymore.”

  No need to invite curious duel seekers.

  “The weight room, of course. And did I ferget to mention that yer not gonna like me when this is through?”

  “That what she said,” Mayah shot.

  Grax tittered into his paw.

  …..

  4.5 The Weight of Happiness

  Jensen led them southeast through the village. As they walked, Mayah scouted for places to shoot a short video.

  She spied the perfect venue in an alley. “There it is.”

  “C'mere Grax. Okay, stand right here and center around head height. I'm going to walk out of the shadows and say a few words.”

  “Got it,” he replied.

  She walked into the alley and made sure she was hidden deep in the shadows. “Can you see me?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay raise a paw when I'm all the way in the light.”

  “Gotcha. ROLLING…”

  Mayah slowly stepped out of the darkness, walking straight toward Grax. She stopped when he raised his paw. Her eyes were covered in the shadows of her hood, leaving only the bottom half of her face visible. She looked to both sides as if checking her surroundings, and then began.

  “Today I had to crush someone for getting in my way. But justice was served hours before our duel even started. He was labeled Oathbreaker for denying paladins the ability to gain their blacksmithing trade.

  “I didn’t tell him to try and scam the system. That was his own not-so bright idea. I just happened to catch him in the act. Instead of just taking his punishment like a big boy, he threatened me. As if he could even stand a chance.

  “Since I’ve been in Majesta, its people have been kind to me, teaching me ways to become stronger. Travisty thought this was like every game before. But, I’m here to tell you, it’s not. He was a poison that would slowly creep in and destroy this world.

  “The duel you saw today was borne out of necessity. I challenged him. Not for me, but for you, for every paladin and every Majestan. Those who brought us here to fight for their homes, for their families, FOR THEIR VERY SOULS... against Ba'alquion.

  “I challenged him, for the freedom to choose without anyone standing in our way. I challenged him because it was the right thing to do.

  “You, children of Earth, you need to know that this is more than a game. Look into a Majestan’s eyes, know that they are your brothers and sisters in this fight. When we are born as paladins, our souls are stripped bare and our natures are revealed. We will be tested and guided and for better or for worse, so will Majesta. We will rise and fall with Majesta. We will cry and laugh with Majesta. I will serve to protect Majesta and the happiness of its people.

  “I will bring them Happiness,” she cried, hefting her new war hammer, “one way or the other.”

  She turned and walked back into the shadows, bouncing her hammer in her hand. When she turned around, her trio of friends stood open mouthed, staring at her.

  “What?”

  Silence

  “C’mon guys, this is getting weird.”

  “Did…. did you just come up with that on the fly???” Grax asked.

  “That was amazing.” Margaret’s hands were clenched to her breast

  “Ooh, goosle, ye get me tearing up,” Jensen said, wiping a tear from his eye.

  “Really? I was just trying to be creepy.”

 
“Oh, that ye were. Just like the bergey man. But the bergey man for justice.”

  “Wow… I think he just called you Batman,” Grax chuckled.

  Margaret grabbed Mayah’s hands, pulling them to her chest. “Mayah, thank you. That speech made me want to get better, do better. I don’t think I could leave Majesta after that. It was moving. Really, dear, it was something else.”

  Mayah looked into their eyes and saw they were sincere. They really had been moved by her words. “So, you think I should post it?”

  “Yes!!!” all three said simultaneously.

  “Okay, okay. Grax send me the file. I'll edit and post it on our way to the gym.”

  And they continued onwards.

  …..

  “This expedition into the unknown is gonna take some fine tuning,” Jensen proclaimed. “I don’t know if this has even been tried, let alone achieved before but let’s be happy pioneers together.” It was just after 10 o’clock and it was going to be a long night. Jensen was headed towards a row of buildings far from the market. “Tonight, I will be joining ye ladies on this adventure into the unknown.” He made the best bow he could while walking.

  “Hey, I'm no lady!!!” Grax snarled.

  “Well then why d’ye whine so much?”

  “Jensen, that’s sexist.” Margaret interjected.

  “I apologize ladies. All three of ye.” He winked at Grax who growled in frustration.

  “Ah, here we are, the weight room.” They walked into a plain, single-story building. The inside looked exactly like a real-world gym. There were rows of cycles against one of the mirrored walls, exotic machines that looked more like they belonged in a torturer’s cell than a gym and free weights by the hundreds in stacks in the center of the large room.

  “Who’s for some math?” Jensen asked.

  Mayah almost tittered. I love math!!!

  “We have to find the sweet spot where your mana recharges fast enough to refill your stamina, but not enough to weaken you until you collapse.”

  He stroked his beard, “Mayah, what's your max weight and your stamina?”

  “94 pounds and 29 stamina.”

  “You have 29 stamina?” Margaret exclaimed.

  “Yup, thanks to Mr. J. over there. We’ll get you caught up in no time.”

  “...And what’s your max stamina drain?” Jensen asked.

  “.34 stamina per second.”

  He did some calculations on his fingers. “Okay, you can lift yer max weight for about 85 seconds and then kablooie…. Yer a noodle. Now tell me what the ratio is for mana to stamina is.

  “2MP to 1SP.”

  “So, 200 mana will be 100 stamina. Let’s do an experiment.” He grabbed some weights and placed them in her arms. Her stamina started to drop rapidly. “Now convert yer mana.”

  She did some quick math in her head. Half of 29 stamina points is 14.5 times 3 equals 43.5, so 43 mana points. She waited until her stamina was just under half way. It took about 40 seconds and then she performed the conversion. Her stamina was now mostly full again. With her mana regen at .80 per sec, it would take her 54 seconds to recoup the mana and refill her stamina.

  “I can keep going like this indefinitely. My mana refills too fast.”

  Jensen stroked his beard. “Then let’s up the weight.” He grabbed another 20 pounds and placed it on her stack.

  A small red status flashed: Encumbered. Her stamina drained much quicker now. “I have an encumbered status, but I can still keep up with the stamina drain. Add 10 more pounds.”

  Her intuition told her you have to exercise the stamina and the mana at the same time or it’s not going to work. The ten pounds got her closer to answering the riddle in a form of a question. What weight will drain my stamina fast enough that it will keep my mana in the 10% range? If I have 29 stamina that equals my stamina bar, then each stamina point is roughly 3.45% of my stamina bar. So, three stamina is 10.345% of my stamina bar. Now, divide stamina by two, (3.452 / 2 = 1.726) so each mana point is worth 1.726% of my stamina bar. That means it takes roughly 5.79 mana points for every ten percent of my total stamina so 6 mana points recouped takes about 4 seconds so that’s the timing. Use 5 or 6 mana points every 7 or 8 seconds while draining stamina. Now what about the weight? Hmmmmmm… I don’t have much in the way of numbers to work with, but I know I'm gonna have to really struggle to get both mana and stamina down.

  She put the weights down.

  “Okay” she said to everyone else, “You have to figure out your mana transfer interval.”

  “Your what now?” Grax said.

  She took a deep breath. “You need to figure out how much mana you need to keep your stamina from going kaput.”

  She sat cross legged on the floor and looked up at Jensen. “You have enough pens and paper for everyone?” He reached into his bag and handed them out taking one for himself.

  “Take your stamina and divide it by 10 and you have 10% of your mana bar.” They all scratched on the paper.

  “We’re just getting rough estimates, like this.” She showed them her work. “After you have that, multiply by two. From this we can figure out how many mana you need to transfer to keep your stamina at or below 10%.”

  “Below 10%? Last time I did that I got a horrible headache.”

  “Well pop an aspirin and get used to it, Mags. This is how you train in Majesta. It sucks but you saw the results in the duel.”

  “Can’t argue with that.” Margaret agreed.

  “Margaret,” Jensen said to the grandmotherly noob, “It’s really important that ye keep yer stamina as low as possible fer the best results. Majestans are taught this as children, and it’s why we can dust off any of ye noob paladins without much of a thought. We want and need to teach you these skills so that ye can help us with defeating Ba'alquion. Yer ingenuity and perseverance and the ability to respawn makes ye our greatest assets. While most paladins look at this as a game, our lives are on the line.”

  I hadn’t really thought about it. The NPCs must be at least semi-sentient to trigger all of these feelings of self-preservation. This was their world and they were more than just ones and zeroes.

  “We’ll do what we can Jensen,” Mayah promised.

  “That’s all a man can ask.”

  She placed her hand on his arm and their eyes met in a knowing glance before they returned to the tutorial.

  “So, you're gonna want to drop a mana point or three to keep you under 10%. Take that number and divide by your regen rate.” She drew out the formula.

  “Everybody still with me? Good, so now we just need to find the right weight to keep draining us rapidly enough that our stamina doesn’t refill but not so fast that we can’t keep it up with our ‘mana transfer interval.’” She made air quotes for this. “My suggestion is to go heavy and drop weight as we go. That will serve to drop both our stamina and mana as fast as possible so we don’t have to wait for the payoff. And we can gauge for ourselves how it’s gonna work out for us individually.”

  “And you’re sure that you’re only 11?” Grax asked sideways.

  “Yes sir. But I was accepted into MIT at nine.”

  “Really?” Margaret asked, impressed.

  “Showoff,” Grax retorted.

  “Yup, but back to this. Jensen overloaded me and I got the Encumbered status. We’re all going to have to go there to start. We may even have to stay there. And watch your strength. If it goes up, you’re gonna have to add more weight. I wish we had some book bags that we could put some weights in.”

  “I’ve got something even better," said Jensen with an evil smile. He went to a closet in the corner and came back with four strappy things with pockets all over them. “Weight vests!!! They act like bags of holding but without the weight reduction. They’re perfect for this. Everybody grab one.”

  “How am I supposed to put this on?” Grax asked.

  “Bag it and equip it,” Mayah said

  “Oh yeah,” Grax said, waving a hand over his head. “Sor
ry, haven’t had any clothes in this game.” Grax stood up on his hind legs, holding the vest from one paw and Margaret’s eyes lit up.

  “So cute…!!!!” Margaret squealed.

  “Not again…”

  After a few minutes of Margaret petting an unhappy Grax and Jensen losing his breath and a few tears from laughing at the sight, they settled back into their project.

  “These vests are awesome. I need one of these. Multiple pockets right where I need them and endless too. Do you know how many throwing knives I could fit into these? Literally hundreds. Jensen, you know where to find these, right?”

  “I might remember better after I get my errands done,” he said as he dramatically scratched his head.

  Grax’s eyes went squinty and he looked at Mayah. “Has he even given you any quests, Fluff?”

  “No.”

  “That’s because she doesn’t need the discipline nor is she dumb enough to think this is only a game, unlike some cats I know. Now I'm ready to proceed…” He paused mid-sentence before looking at Mayah. “If ye say it’s time to go. It seems like you know more about what we’re trying to do than I do, so lead on, oh Pretty Princess.”

  “Okay,” Mayah smiled. “Take your max weight and multiply by 1.5.” Mayah waited for them to do the math.

  When they were done she continued, “That should give us all pretty good starting reference. Then start adding weight. Be careful not to drop to 0, Margaret. It’ll be hard to talk while we’re doing this so just adjust your weights. In case of an emergency, just dump a bunch of weight. You can slip up a few times, but get back below 10% as quick as possible.”

  The quartet of eager masochists began loading their pockets with weight. Mayah saw her stamina drop by the tens and started converting mana. When she was at about 20% of each, she started chucking weights and slowing the dropping stamina bar. But her mana was climbing. Okay, I’m gonna discharge the extra mana with an enchantment. She pulled a stone out of her bag and chucked a few more pounds to get the stamina drain at the right speed. She took a stone from her bag, cast Enchantment and dropped the finished project. “If your mana starts to rise, use your magic.”