Well…this is a shitty situation to be in…
Of all the characters in Worm that I could have met in this damn world, I met the one who could control me with just using her voice. How the fuck do you defend against something like that!?
It doesn't help that she's a naive girl that has no idea that her own powers have the ability to basically master anyone as long as they hear their voice.
Which…yeah makes fucking sense, give a girl who wants to sing well, the ability to mind-control people too why the fuck not!?
Fucking shards and their conflict drive bullshit.
Fuck Cauldron for contacting her and giving Paige powers that have no manual on how it works.
Fuck Paige for being so damn insecure about her voice that she felt the need to get powers from a shady company just to get into the music business instead of doing it like a normal person would.
And fuck me for putting myself in this situation in the first place.
"Reginald you ok?"
My spiraling thoughts halted as Paige's words brought me back to reality, her face contorted in concern and confusion from my silence. It took a lot of self-control to not just run away like a bitch and be declared a madman.
I forced myself to smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just…spaced out is all. I just woke up so early on a Sunday so I'm not feeling it exactly."
"Oh ok. Then you should go home and take a nap. Sleep is important after all." She lightly chastised me like a toddler which is very cute.
I rolled my eyes playfully. "Yes Mom, I'll do that." I chuckled when she sputtered with a red-faced. "Well then see you around I guess. Hopefully, your life will get happier from here on out." I began to quickly walk as fast as possible without being too inconspicuous.
Unfortunately for me, fate had other plans for me.
"Wait!"
I halted, dread pooling into my stomach as I turned around, trying my best not to look at Paige like she is an irredeemable monster who would use her voice to break me down and submit to her will-!
"I know we just met and all but…I enjoyed our talk together and I was wondering if…we can talk like this again sometime?" She brushed the hair on the side of her face, looking anxious at my possible reply. So much so that she had to add. "If you're not busy, that is!"
I almost wanted to say No to her right there and then. I don't want to be part of whatever bullshit she would have to go through when she eventually offs her ex and goes to Birdcage because of the sham of a case. Call me heartless or cruel but I got a lot on my plate, being Sarah's brother is already taking its toll on me, not to mention being a Tinker on top of that and trying to hide it from my "family" and it's a recipe for disaster.
Not to mention that it's only been fucking two days since I got here! Like I mean what the fuck!? Is this world trying to screw me over this early already!? It's ridiculous! I am not the Queen of Escalation damnit!
But…I knew I couldn't stand it if I had the knowledge to help her navigate that situation and I just…couldn't leave it be even if it's none of my own damn business…
Why am I so damn soft-hearted? I just like fixing people's problems, don't I? Either that or maybe because I have some sort of hero-complex deep inside of me and seeing a girl who will be imprisoned in the future and having the knowledge to stop it from happening? Well…it would leave a bad taste in me if I don't do anything about it…even though I'm gonna regret this…again.
Wow, I've been using that word a lot. At this point, I might doubt every action I take from now on and that would be fucking miserable.
I turned around with a forced smile as I held out my phone to her. "Sure why not? I had fun too so I wouldn't mind either."
As she grabs my phone and inputs her contact information in, I begin to recognize that maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I thought it would be.
Being near a Master, one that controls humans is usually suicide since your guaranteed to lose yourself against them but reading about Paige and who she is as a person made me realize that she has no reason to control people intentionally unless she is stressed or was forced to. She only used her powers to practically cheat on singing.
Sure it's kinda dumb that she is using powers on something mundane but it's better than the alternative. Also, I can help her avoid that cruel fate of being sent to the Birdcage easily by telling her about her powers and their full capabilities. From what I have read of her, she believes that her powers only make her singing better and that her voice might make the audience a little suggestive of suggestions. All I need to do is either build a device that should disrupt her powers, preventing her from Mastering anyone by mistake or just tell her about the full consequences of her power…
Hopefully, that goes well when I do eventually tell her about them but for now…I should just be patient with her and wait till she is comfortable enough to talk about her power. That and hope that she doesn't get into trouble by then.
After getting Paige's contact information, I jogged back to our house without any more issues. I enter the house to find all of my "family" members sitting down for breakfast already at the dining table. They turned around and were surprised by my attendance as I made my way to the stairs.
"I'll go ahead and take a bath first before I go down to eat!" I told them as I came inside my room and took off my sweaty shirt, briefly admiring my flat stomach and puffed out chest. Man this guy is decked out! I better make sure it stays that way from now on.
I removed the rest of my clothes as I entered the bathroom, noticing the bathtub right away. I have been to hotels before where you can use bathtubs there but it's kinda amazing that every American home has a bathtub and it's not sorely used by the rich people alone.
I do want to hop on it and just melt my body in it but my stomach argues otherwise, grumbling in annoyance. I guess I can go take a long bath some other time. For now, I'll just take a normal shower.
Once I was finished with the bathroom, I went to my closet and got another sleeveless shirt and shorts, or that was the plan when I just realized how damn cold it is. I knew that it should be autumn around this time of the year so I expected the temperature to drop…but not by this much!
I guess I didn't notice it before since I was exercising before and was chatting with Canary. In any case, I guess I should wear thicker clothes this time around. Picking out a long-sleeved shirt and some long pants, I went downstairs to join the rest of the Livsey's for breakfast.
Or most of the Livsey's anyway. My sister seemed to have vanished once again from the table. I was hoping that I could eat with her like yesterday and maybe try to talk with her again like two nights ago. I guess I'll need to find another opportunity later. For now, food first.
I still can't get over the fact that there is no rice in my meals. I don't know whether or not they have rice but I'm already starting to miss eating those white fluffy seeds of goodness. I think I might need to start buying rice myself soon…and a rice cooker too.
My Livsey's parents were quite engrossed in their discussion about their business just like last night. I took notes of what they were talking about such as inventory of their food supplies or how some of the employees need to be let go due to suspected robbery of their cash or their sheer incompetence to not do their jobs properly.
I doubt that I will be taking over their business anytime soon but I guess I could at least pay attention to a bit of what they say just in case I need to do something in the near future.
As I finished breakfast and was on my way back to my room, Livsey's dad suddenly called out to me.
"Reginald. Come here for a second."
I stiffened at my name being called, thinking that I might have done something suspicious or wrong to warrant his attention but I knew I was being irrational. I rarely spend any time with both of Livsey's parents, only seeing them at the dinner table so I should be safe for now.
I calmed myself down before approaching the table, trying to act as calmly as possible as I made eye contact with Sarah's father.
"Yes?"
"I need you to change your clothes and prepare to go out with me." His voice sounded quite serious, as if he was preparing for this day specifically.
"To…where?" I began to panic a little, negative thoughts protrude my mind right now at the possibility of getting caught as an imposter.
"To our company of course. I think it's about time I start teaching you about how it all works from the inside."
…
…
…well shit.
To say that I was calm and collected to manage an entire food company would be a fucking huge lie. At least my facade of tranquility was enough to fool Livsey's father into believing that everything is under control.
On the inside though, I'm panicking like there is no tomorrow.
For starters, I have no experience whatsoever how to run a damn company, let alone even have the slightest knowledge on how to do it in the first place.
Sure, I have some experience in running a food business of sorts but that was different. For one, I was never hands-on with the entire business, I was just the cashier and accountant of the restaurant while my mama handled everything else.
Two, I have never attended a single class about anything related to business. Mostly because College is a fucking scam and will just eat all your money and put you in crippling debt that you would have to send 20+ years repaying back with the low-end jobs. Also because I never cared about business in the first place.
So being forced into this role is quite unpleasant, to say the least. But maybe…I can gain something from this trip, I'll just have to see.
It didn't take long to get to the said company, about 20-30 mins of relatively normal driving to get there, although the presentation of the company was…meh.
The building seemed pretty generic, a huge looking warehouse with the sign that says…"Livsey's Food Company" Well looks like I learned something new about my parents. They are shit at naming things.
Once the car was parked in the reserved parking spot and got out of the car, I was greeted by several men in suits with sunglasses that looked like they belonged in the CIA or something along those lines.
I had to be honest, I feel way out of place here. I mean having bodyguards surround you like this makes me even more unsafe as I have no idea what their intentions are to me, despite the logical fact that they were hired by Sarah's father to protect him and me.
One man that looked like the leader of these bodyguards greeted us with respect as he bows his head down and spoke to us.
"Welcome Mr. Livsey. We have been waiting for you."
Sarah's father nods at him. "Anything to report?"
The bodyguard shook his head. "No sir, everything is running as smoothly as it does."
"Good then." I was being patted on the back by Sarah's father as a way to introduce him to me. "This is my son who will be my second in command. Should anything happen to me or if I am unavailable, you will be taking orders from him."
I bowed in respect to the bodyguard who will be guarding in the foreseeable future. "A pleasure to meet you sir. I hope we can get along."
The bodyguard reciprocated by mimicking my actions back to me. "Likewise, Mr Reginald."
After that introduction, we finally entered the building. It seemed that we are in a lobby for waiting guests as I can see a bunch of chairs lined up and a main front desk with a guy attending to it.
The numerous bodyguards that followed us inside split up, going who knows where while the main one is still with us. The three of us then proceeded to ignore the front desk and went straight into the Only Employee Area.
We walked for a bit before coming across another door where I finally get to see what this company is all about.
And what I saw here…surprised me.
Now when I heard about the food company that Sarah's family owned, I expected it to be a factory type where it will distribute different types of food whether that would be junk food, processed meat, or even desserts.
This…this wasn't what I was anticipating.
Instead of a factory made for food to be produced, this feels like more of an experimental lab for food as I can see in one of the rooms a scientist who was trying to cut some sort of green goo and trying to mold it into something. He then proceeded to get a microscope to see whatever is in the green goo.
Another room I can see is that of two scientists, pulling out a tube that is housing salmon and began tasting it. They then jotted notes down on their clipboards before placing the salmon back into the tube machine.
Another room I saw is another scientist that is mixing a bunch of liquids together in different beakers. He then picked up one of the beakers and poured the liquid on to another. The results weren't pretty as the beaker that was being poured into began to bubble rapidly, causing the scientist to stop pouring any more liquid and get the rest of the beakers out of the way.
There were so many more rooms just like this as well. I felt like a little kid again watching all these scientists doing actually science stuff rather than just lecturing about science. My mind began to whir to life, gathering ideas on creating a microchip that will allow me to download data and skills from the internet and other people-!
A tap from the back stirs me out of my fugue moment as Sarah's father motions to follow him. I blushed a bit in embarrassment as I trail behind him, taking in glances at the other science-cy rooms. I wish I can just visit one of the rooms and just simply ask them question after question. Even though my dream of becoming a scientist had died a long time ago, I can't help but be simply amazed by the people around me that do this stuff in their own.
'At least they are better than me who uses alien powers to cheat their way in with the cost of fighting people.' I groaned at the pessimistic thoughts my mind was having and just shove them back for the moment. I need to get my head in the game right now for this meeting that I'm gonna have.
We eventually reach another door that is labeled Fred Livsey's Office. Ah so that's the name of Sarah's father. Neat I suppose. Now I have an actual name that I can refer to him in my thoughts.
Fred and I enter the office while the bodyguard is left behind, presumably to either oversee the other bodyguards or to guard the door. I take a seat as I see Fred looking into one of his cabinets, searching for some papers or maybe even a folder to read to me or maybe he is looking for something else entirely.
He did eventually find what he was looking for, a folder that was jammed packed with a lot of papers as thick as my clenched hands. He dropped the folder onto his desk as he sits down stares down at me.
"Alright son, this folder is all the knowledge I have gained over the course of running this business. Starting every Saturday and Sunday, you will come with me to my office and I will devote my time into teaching you everything you need to know how to run this company. Understand?"
No of course I don't understand! You think I want to spend the weekends being taught boring business lessons that I could have use to Tinker instead!? This is actually absurd.
I need to fudge this somehow in my favor.
"Umm ok but…can't it just be every Sunday instead?"
Fred blinked at my response, probably not expecting it in the first place. He narrowed his eyes as his tone became deeper. "Why then? Why do you want to waste a perfect weekend to not study? Rich people don't get rich just by sitting around and twiddling their thumbs you know."
I took a deep breath as I looked him in the eye with my own glare. "Because I need to rest, dad. I can't just jump straight into your lesson especially after my weekdays being consumed by school. I need to rest my mind so that I can concentrate better on your lessons. Otherwise I would be simply visiting for nothing since I would be too tired to even take in your lesson."
Honestly, the talk about school was just a bunch of BS I came up on the spot but now that the topic has been brought up…I realized on how just fucked I am in that regard.
Not only do I have to go back to school, which is already a waste of time, but it's also high school where cliques, drama and all that nonsense happens. Luckily for me, I would only need to attend only for one year before freedom but still, the thought of going back to high school doesn't exactly mesh well with me.
Not to mention that I remember vaguely about Reginald being a popular kid in school too so I'm gonna be attracting a lot more attention then I would have liked. Basically having no privacy in school. Which would absolutely suck.
School is not something I'm gonna look forward to again, especially if after school, I will have to use my weekends to be taught by Fred instead of resting. I might fucking snap.
Not to mention, Tinkering. Yeah, something I need to try and find out a way to curb that nonsense too.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Fred could care less about how I felt as he shrugged without much care. "Those are excuses that weak-minded people use to drag everyone else down to their level. People who want to secure their own future will do everything in their power to ensure their future, to rise to the top at any cost. Your "reasoning" for wanting breaks are someone who can't handle the harsh life outside." He crossed his arms in disappointment. "You won't get anywhere with that attitude, Reginald. You will either attend my lessons or be forced to be kicked out of your house with all your belongings."
I expected that type of response. In fact, it was a type of answer I anticipated from those hardcore asian parents that want to show off to their friends or acquaintances of how their child is so smart with meaningless test scores that don't encapsulate the actual intelligence of their child. I know this because that's how my grandparents were like when they raised me. That and Social Media depicting memes of them. Those were quite funny to watch.
Not so funny to be on the receiving end of them though.
But I know there isn't much I can do at the moment. I can't risk getting kicked out of the house just because of a small disagreement of not attending his lessons. I need time, time to figure out what the fuck I'm gonna do here with my Tinker powers, Sarah, my fanon knowledge and now Paige with her future in jeopardy.
Dammit all, I'll fucking bite the bullet.
I took a deep breath as I nodded to him "Alright. I'll attend them."
My father Fred smiled at me. "Good, I knew I could trust you to make the right decision. Now then, before I begin to tell you how to run this company, you must know its background and how it came to be."
Oh god, this is much worse than I thought it's gonna be. There's a history lesson tied to this shit too!
Please just kill me now.
I'm surprised that I was still barely able to get through that slugfest. I hate History with all of my fiber just because of how dragged out the lessons could be. Fred just reminded me of how much I still hate that subject until now.
Still I manage to make it out with a bit of my sanity lost into the winds. Or maybe most of them, either way I'm not gonna complain and just focus on the notes I have written down from his…I would say lesson but this felt like he was just boasting on how great Fred is from building this company from nothing so "session" would be appropriate I suppose.
In any case, it was already quite late by the time we went back home just in time for dinner. Sarah and her mom were already present at the dining table, looking quite awkward in my opinion. Like as if they don't exactly match, despite looking similar and being related.
I gave a small wave which the latter reciprocated while the former just gazed at me, not happy or angry, just…gazing blankly at me. I try not to let that affect me.
As we sat down on our table and the husband and wife began to talk about business as usual, I elbowed Sarah to get her attention.
"What?"
"Can we…talk later after dinner?" I knew what I was doing was…risky especially since I haven't been able to talk with Sarah at all, barring the first time I was forcibly "summoned" here. Not to mention that I have no reason to talk to her at all other than to satisfy myself since I'll be talking to someone who I may have a crush on back on Earth…
But now that I'm here in this new world, I need someone that I can trust to watch my back in case I do something…stupid thanks to the elusive conflict drive I have stuck to my brain. Normally that would be the adults, aka my "parents" but I knew that they would just use me for my powers like a tool, just like how they used Sarah back then so that's a big no for me.
Don't want to involve the PRT or the Wards either in this mess since I know that they would limit the resources I would have available as a Tinker, not to mention that the Worm Fandom doesn't have a high opinion on them as well if what they wrote about the incompetence and the corruption of the Wards, the Protectorate and the PRT are to be believed. Granted I know that most of them are kinda overblown thanks to a certain director in Brockton Bay but I can't take my chances here in Boston either.
So the only person I could trust to watch my back? Is my own sister/crush. Man, I must have fucked up in life to get myself into this mess.
But in order for me to put all my trust on her, I need to first repair the relationship that was once broken by both Reginald and Sarah. And so this talk needs to happen to bridge that gap.
I waited with baited breath for Lisa Sarah's response as she just stared at me, trying to decipher my intentions. I just stare back at her, trying to appear friendly but at the same time, conveying the seriousness of the "talk" that we are going to have soon.
After a few more moments she shrugs and nods. I let out a sigh of relief as our maid served everyone dinner. While I eat my rice-less meal, I try to come up with a plan to talk with Sarah about our sibling issues, something that I have no memory of to draw on.
…this will be a lot harder than I thought.
Merry Christmas! Hope you have a wonderful holiday.
