Life moving too fast or full of idiots? The smog of the city bothering your sensitive skin? Need some time away from it all?

  Buy our new Deep Pods! Like a sensory deprivation pod, but with full VR hookups and Nutri-Lines to make sure you can escape deep into the Mesh for days at a time!

  - campaign from Life And Information Resources, 2054

  With the presentation interrupted, Rogal built a thin layer cover around Victor made of cloth as an attempt to lessen his migraine. Cassandra was leaning back into her chair, stroking the Raven in a top hat.

  Bahamut, Leman, Vulkan, and Jim had made their way back to the training floor and the DM Screen, while Baba Yaga and Morrigan stayed in the common room with Cassandra

  Cassandra turned to look at Morrigan. “He mentioned something about you getting him to make a PMC, right? How's that going to work?”

  Morrigan nodded, much more subdued than her normal energy. “Yeah.” Cassandra receives a file, opening it shows the floors they owned as well as estimates on minimum and maximum residents. “The plan is to recruit a bunch of people, either normal people or former PMCs or soldiers or whatever, getting a Class I training program for them and equipping them with decent gear. We would have them move around the area around New Phoenix with the combat Commanders, taking out hives and building trust and experience and loyalty so that we could arm them with better gear.”

  Cassandra narrowed her eyes slightly. Was this AI pouting? Her voice definitely expressed such a thing, but her face remained- no, wait! Her cheeks are slightly puffed! She took a few photos to save for when Bo returned.

  “That sounds like a good plan, but with the amount of space here, you could build an army of several thousand. Are you planning on a revolt?” Cassandra jokes.

  Morrigan bounced her head side to side, kicking her feet as she sat on the edge of the stage. “Most of the space is set aside for the families of the soldiers to live and maybe work if they want. You saw the shopping districts, right? Well, they are modular in nature, able to shift into pretty much any shop you could want, but you have to run it as such. Restaurants, salons, cafes, whatever else they could want to do. Enrichment activities and such.”

  Cassandra chuckled a bit, “What are they, you pets?”

  Morrigan sighed and laid down, feet still kicking. “Maybe? I mean, one could see the situation as that. A super intelligent AI running an ant farm for humans, while taking some of those humans and making them fight aliens or stupid people. Victor would- might frown on that analogy, but it's whatever.”

  Cassandra nodded, hoping that she was joking, but also knowing that she probably wasn't.

  “This PMC project was supposed to help acclimate him to the idea that he could do more with his strength, disguised as a fix to the disastrous state of affairs the city's defenses are.” Morrigan raised a hand straight up with her index finger raised. “They will still do that, mind you, as this is the bare minimum to make sure he and what he cares for is safe, but I had other plans that Outsider and Bahamut and I came up with. Plans to get him to try and be a bit more proactive in fixing things here, like what Doma and Bub and the others did a few years back, or what I have read happen over news feeds in New Montreal, or Calgary, or any other city with Samurai with communities. But after hearing that,” She waves her hand towards the soft dome, “I think that plan will be put on the back burner for a while.”

  Cassandra could only nod. The friend she called agreed that he needed pretty immediate help and Synaptic had scheduled an appointment for tomorrow after getting Victor's approval, somehow.

  Cassandra heard Cari and Outsider's footsteps slowly make their way towards them. She glanced at them, then got up and briskly walked to Cari, wrapping her in a hug and her very fluffy tail after seeing that she had been crying. Cari reciprocated the hug but stayed silent.

  **********************************

  The next few days passed uneventfully, with me having gone to my, rescheduled due to migraine, appointment with The Family’s local therapist, Augustus, but otherwise remained either doing simple Tactical sims or resting in a pool that was modified to help with recovering from the venom. It was acting as a sensory deprivation tank, with the thicker water warmed to body temp, no currents or touching the walls. And the screens in the pool had been changed to be the night sky with a new moon.

  Synaptic had analyzed the venom and realized that a Cleanser was, in fact, the third worst thing that could have helped, as the venom acted like a Seven, clinging to neurons and nerves and not just adjusting chemistry. The recovery period could have been shortened, but I didn't want to purchase Class II Medical Utilities, as that would take my last token and I wanted to save it for something else.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Cari had given me some space and wanted to do the same for the others, but Jill and Roger refused to let her isolate herself, especially after learning both why she drugged me, and how much she had truly lost in the last week.

  Morrigan had finished the building's renovations and it was now fully ready for residents, so she had, with my permission and with Bahamut's help, began sending out recruitment notices and had been screening applicants. I didn't know what the requirements were, but I knew that Synaptic had forced them to lower them in order to have more than twelve people accepted.

  I had also paid for all the catalogs Morrigan requested, giving her a new project in addition to the ones she already. I really wanted that junk throwing satellite.

  “Victor, how do you feel?” Synaptic asked from her new frame, a floating eye.

  Not like an eye ball, but closer to that one thing from the Shadow the Hedgehog game, the thing that the villain used to bother the main character. Flat, ovoid frame with a purple iris and a galactic sclera, with four tentacles of starry material poking out of the back. I don't know how she talks through it, as there is no mouth, but that doesn't stop her and I didn't ask.

  “Feeling better,” I say wearily. The migraine had faded into a dull throb, akin to a mild sinus infection, which while still very annoying, was manageable and not debilitating.

  I had heard from Synaptic about what happened to Cari's last remaining close family, Clive. I had discussed, well slurred my way through my thoughts, options for recovering Clive, but those fuckers had used Vanguard tech to erase him in order for him not to send any kind of signal to warn her.

  Cassandra had gotten some info from her Japanese connections about the Mikosanos, but what she learned was very mundane. Based in Fukushima district in Osaka, they are a prominent family in the medical industry, with a decent sized military force, both land and naval, dedicated to territorial defenses and convoy protection. It is speculated that they have a Samurai, but that is only because of the quality of gear and medicine they have. Their reputation is good, but they are a very old school family, heavily traditional and very private.

  Anything more would require us to contact the local Samurai group, the Keiretsu, as any civilian organization would be ineffective and probably discovered, both putting them in danger and alerting the Mikosanos. I would hold off on asking them until my headache subsided in order to be polite.

  “Would you like to try talking to Cari?” Synaptic asked, her eye forming a small smile.

  I hesitated. Augustus had helped me work through some of my problems, or rather, starting on them. But the one thing he recognized about me that he shared was that I was very touch starved, and when Cari had shown me such affections in that way, I latched onto it hard.

  My next appointment with him was tomorrow, and I wanted to focus more on that, on her and my feelings. I- I still felt that I cared for her, and that wouldn't change. But, I needed to figure out if I was attracted to her or…

  I sighed, letting my thoughts slip away, as the anxiety I was causing myself was not helping my headache.

  “I- I want to, but I don't want to hurt her again.” I mutter.

  “And how could you hurt me again?” I twitched hard, feeling my muscles tense hard as my anxiety spiked. I hadn't heard her come in and I wasn't wearing anything remotely decent, being just a pair of swimming trunks.

  Due to the viscousness of the water, I could not turn around, so I just stared upside down at Cari.

  Her face was a mixture of amusement and frustration? Scorn? Worry? It was very hard to decipher faces upside down. She was in a light blue sundress that flowed around her. She crouched down and got closer to me, easily within arms reach. “Victor, I'm fine. You are the one who is being stubborn and not getting better sooner. What, is it some sort of self imposed penance?”

  “No, nothing like that.” I say. “I just- I have a different desire for the last point I have and it's not like I have any pressing matters right now…” muttering the last words as Cari's eyebrow climbed with each word.

  “There could be an attack on the city any day now, and a majority of the high powered individuals have left to fight aliens on Mars. Just because nothing has happened, doesn't mean you shouldn't be ready in case something does.” She reaches out and pokes my forehead. “So stop wallowing and get healed up, love. I don't hold anything against you, and I miss you. But if you need me to do something to forgive me-”

  “No, Cari!” I say, struggling to right myself. After a frustrating amount of flailing about, Synaptic lifts the small pool’s floor, freeing me. Cari is struggling to not laugh while also maintaining that look of anxiety.

  “Cari, I already forgive you the drugging, as I understood why once I… once I heard your ribs fix themselves.” A look of shock and horror passed over her, then understanding and relief.

  “I've just been… working through my own problems, trying to figure out-” I take a deep breath, then release it. “Trying to figure out if I fell in love with your body and your touch, or you…” I said it. I ripped the bandaid off and said it. Sands, what if she hates me now. I could feel my insides begin twisting, the heat of my anxiety flushing through me. What if she sees me as a creep, or a pervert or or or-

  She moves in, wrapping her left arm around my waist and her right hand on my face, she places her forehead against mine. “Sh sh sh sh. Victor, hey it's okay.” She whispered in a very soft tone. I felt my muscles relax as I wrapped my arms around her waist.

  We stood there like that for a few moments, simply being in each other's presence. The entire time, Cari whispered soothing tones and words, helping me calm down.

  After I felt my body cool down, and slightly shiver because of the water, Cari pulled her head back and looked me in the eyes. “Victor, the fact that you had this thought and were agonizing over it should be answer enough. If you were a bastard, a pervert, or a letcher, you wouldn't feel this misplaced guilt, and you wouldn't be in agony. And I wouldn't still be here, waiting for you to heal up.” She chuckles darkly. “In fact, I would make sure to leave some lasting marks if you were.”

  I feel a shiver go down my spine at her laugh, Sands she was mesmerizing. She giggles, “And that's how I know you're a good man in love with me, not just my touch. Your eyes gain this spark when you look at me, and they melt when you think something sappy. While your face doesn't change a whole lot, your eyes are so very honest.”

  I didn't know that my eyes did things, but hearing her reassurances, feeling her hold me of her own volition even after what I said, I felt my fears fade.

  Everything would be alright.