Consequences (Bryan Chandler)
T he day after your arrival at Covington College , Tony Moretti, your assigned mentor, asks you to meet him at the Witches Brew Cafe in the late afternoon. “You are paying for the coffee. The lesson is free but the extras are on you...besides it looks like you can afford it.” He laughs as he gives you a slap on the back. You have some awkward small talk before he mentions that it’s time to get to work. The two of you head back to the Amaranthine Lighthouse and re-enter the Reality Shard of the lighthouse tower. He takes you to the third floor of the tower into a large hall filled with computer equipment and wall to wall monitors with brand names you never heard of. “Don’t worry” he says. “We need the network to analyze the dossiers before taking action...but I prefer meatspace to all that digital web mumbo jumbo. The problems I fix...can’t be resolved in the digital realm, anyways.” He states flatly.
Tony logs into one of the many advanced information networks owned by your coven and opens a program marked “Gordian Sword 2.34 Beta.exe”. An interface similar to a modern social network pops up on the screen but instead of food pics and cat photos, it is an extremely detailed list of known deeds of a supernatural nature and a list of known affiliations to dangerous organizations and groups. Sitting underneath the profile photo of each person in a large font is their color coded threat level score. Green for safe, Yellow for monitor closely, Orange for operations in progress, and Red for neutralize threat. Tony seems to be focusing only on the Orange and Red profiles. “It’s like a credit score for how dangerous you are to the rest of reality.” He exclaims as he cracks his fingers and starts typing.
The first profile he examines is for a 16 year old girl living in Liverpool, UK. It lists a fairly long police record with vandalism, shoplifting, breaking and entering, and minor drug charges listed by date alongside her high school grades, favorite hangouts, favorite color and a known association to cult attempting to raise a Chaos spirit masquerading as the demon, Baal. “Dumb asses!” he exclaims. “Geez, Lucky for them that real, Demons with a capital D are rare here on Earth. Spirits are still dangerous but still nowhere near the same threat level as the pants shitting stuff that’s out there!” Tony starts drawing some equations on a white board next to his seat while talking to himself. You notice that his eyes are pure white and he seems to be in some kind of trance. After an uncomfortable amount of time with him just staring at the equations while speaking in whispers to himself, he snaps back to being present in the room with you.
“I’ve calculated 3,984 different scenarios over the next month for subject #56705043, code name PandaLover22. In 10 of them, she becomes Enlightened as a mage and is eaten by the Chaos spirit. In 781 of them, she becomes a demon's earthly AirBnB. In 2,633 of them, she is recruited by the Illuminati, and in 2 of them, she makes it rain maple syrup over a 5 block area. None of these are desired outcomes. I’m going to recommend raising her status to Orange. Operation parameters are to have our information services team text a bunch of dick pics from her demon cult buddies to her phone with some inflammatory and extremely personal comments. She’ll ghost them in a heartbeat. We already know what her hot button topics are, all we have to do is apply a little pressure. Phase Two will be to insert one of our “Romeo” operatives into her meatspace life and get her back on track to where we need her to be. Chance of success, 98.9996%. I like those odds! Hooyah!”
Tony becomes very animated as he types his recommendation into the system. The former Navy SEAL is quite proud of himself. It’s a side you haven’t seen from him in your other interactions so far and you’re not really sure what to think. “Why is her code name PandaLover22?” you ask earnestly. “She is 99.99999% likely to click on cute photos of Pandas according to our records.” he swiftly replies.
“Let’s move on to the next one!” he yells as the spins his chair back around to the screen and picks the next profile. “What do we have here...Doris Walker...83 years old...lives in Sydney, Australia...4 grand kids...Good credit history...60 AUD natural gas bill...Current smoker...recently deceased husband of 40 years...member of the Synergy Dynamics low income prescription program for type II diabetics...bought 200 kilos of raw meat from an online butcher shop last week...WOOOAH!...that is NOT GOOD! I’d better do the math!” He enters the trance again but with much quicker results.
“Out of 5,876 scenarios, 4,999 of them end in her total transformation into a flesh eating ghoul permanently.” Tony is no longer excited as his eyes narrow and his speech tone becomes slow and deliberate. “Recommendation...Surprise House Guest.” He pulls up every known video and photo of the woman’s address and puts them on every screen on the monitor wall then stares at them intently for at least 15 minutes. “Hey Computer, what time is it in Sydney?” he says with a heavy heart. “The time in Sydney is 06:30 hours.” The computer responds in a creepily cheery voice.
Tony walks over to a large full length mirror on the west wall and touches it with both hands. The mirror image starts to shimmer and distort until the reflection changes from an image of the current surroundings to a portal into a darkened kitchen with extremely outdated decor. Tony opens up a briefcase by his feet and in his right hand, he pulls out a small glass canister with a three inch flame inside and then some kind of cutting tool in his left hand. Upon further inspection, you notice that the flame has a face, hands, and feet.
There is no time to contemplate this vision before Tony walks through the portal and uses the cutting tool quietly behind the gas stove and cuts the gas line. After letting the gas spew out for a few minutes, he steps back to your side of the portal and starts to shake the glass canister violently. The little face inside hurls itself towards the glass angrily. He does this three more times and the flame grows brighter and brighter with each shake. “They really hate when you do that..” He states calmly. With one quick and fluid action, he removes the canister top and throws it towards the now gas filled kitchen with one hand while waving the portal closed in the other. Just before the mirror changes back to the reflection of the room, you see a 7 foot tall, completely pissed off flame elemental hurling towards the mirror portal and an even bigger ball of fire behind the agitated creature.
“Hey computer, alert me of any deaths from fire in Sydney, Australia as soon as you hear about it.” he says in a sullen voice. “Ok, got it! You’ll know of any fire deaths ASAP!” replies the cheery A.I. “I wish they didn’t make the blasted thing so FUCKING HAPPY, ALL THE FUCKING TIME!” he shouts as he slams the desk with his fists. “Why did they make the thing SO GODDAMN HAPPY!” The two of you sit in silence in front of the glowing monitors for another hour or so before Tony speaks another word. “Today’s lesson is over. I’m going to go ponder the consequences of my actions today over a bottle of tequila...you coming?”
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