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Charlie and Friends (One Shot)

A man makes friends with his friend's friends.

By drkennyPublished 3 years ago 32 min read
1
Charlie and Friends (One Shot)
Photo by Beth Teutschmann on Unsplash

Today, today, today. Today’s Sunday.

Hello, I’m Saya. I’m currently with my best friend, Ataraxia. We’re joined at the hip, you see.

“Saya, can you please let go of my hip? I understand the phrase, but this is too much for me to handle,” Ataraxia says while shaking her leg.

“No thanks,” I reply.

By the way, I’m tugging onto her leg because she’s trying to escape. What I mean by that is that she’s trying to make me interact with new people so she can stop talking to me. The problem for her is that I don’t want to meet new people, since I already have her.

I mean, I know Ataraxia would never ditch me that easily, but you never know with girls.

Now see, I’ve met Ataraxia a long time ago at a boys-only private school we went to. At the time, I was 8 and she was 5. But that’s kind of a problem. If you’re friends with someone for too long, don’t you begin to drift off?

Ah, I’m starting to sound like a 14-year-old girl. Hmm…

Well, whatever.

Anyways, I’m a 21-years-old man! So this jovial demeanor I’m giving off is probably inappropriate for my age.

Not that I would know, considering I haven’t talked to any others besides Ataraxia.

Subject change.

Despite Ataraxia’s pleas for me to make new friends, I haven’t made any so far. So she’s taking me to her apartment today so that I can meet her friends. Now, I know what I said, but I only agreed because my schedule was clear today… and Ataraxia was practically begging me to go on my doorstep. Think of it as an adult playdate, I remember her saying not too long ago.

Now, I know that you’re probably thinking this is the start of a harem and I should be happy about it.

But she said that her friends are males, so something tells me that these are just acquaintances from work or people she paid to talk to me. I mean, she’s a girl, so she would naturally have more girl friends than boy friends.

Sheesh, she really thinks she can fool me. How adorable.

Ataraxia pulls out her room key. I don’t know why she didn’t accept my offer to give her free money last year. Now she has to be in this crappy storage compartment.

By the way, the common currency of this universe are called “Apokkies.” Short for “Apokkryphalia’s credits.” Well, it’s an informal abbreviation. Mainly younger people call them “Apokkies.” I think that it sounds cute, so I call them that too.

Apokkies are digital currency (actually, it’s also physical currency but only boomers use them) that cannot be replicated in any way. Even the most powerful magic users can’t replicate them for reasons I do not know at the moment. Apparently, that’s not public knowledge.

Now, I have a pretty large net worth (mainly because of my wealthy father), so I have no qualms about giving Ataraxia some money to help her out.

You see, before she met me–and I hate using this to describe her–she was a poor farmer’s girl, basically. It was so sad.

Well, she was (and still is, unfortunately) middle class, so… I’m not wrong, right?

I mean, her predicament was so horrible that the only way she got into that private school I was talking about earlier (funded by upper class dark elves) was she had to cross dress. As a guy! AS A GUY! (She still kinda looks like one though.)

So that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to give her money.

The other reason was because I love her very much. She’s just wife material! She can cook, she can clean… and she has the best ideas when it comes to fun. I hope to confess my feelings of love someday…

Um.

I’m getting off topic, so anyway… what was I just talking about?

Oh, right.

Ataraxia told me that she didn’t want my money because she didn’t want to rely on my money. I just told her to think of it as a gift, but she refused. I told her I’ll give her money on her birthday or Christmas, and she reluctantly agreed.

Anyways, Ataraxia just opened her door, and there are actually some boys sitting down.

Well, two boys and a girl. The two boys are on her sofa, and the girl is on the floor, twiddling her thumbs on her phone.

But she said all of her friends were boys? Ugh, after this whole ordeal is over, I’m going to scold her for searching up randoms online to talk to me.

I also notice that this room looks very reminiscent of a hotel room that you’d rent if you’re, to put quite plainly, poor. In fact, the gross brown “carpeting” (it’s literally not, it’s just a hard flooring with little fluffiness) is nothing special. In fact, there are no decorations or anything (that I know of) that Ataraxia actually cares about. What.

There isn’t even a TV! There’s just a small cube-shaped table with a glass covering, the sofa the two boys are sitting on… and a drawer. A drawer in front of the cube-shaped table. It almost feels as if the drawer is a sad excuse for where the television is supposed to be. There’s a kitchen as well, but it only comes with basic kitchen necessities: stove, sink, fridge, microwave, table, chair and an oven.

Yes. Notice how there are no plural nouns. That’s how bad it is.

Ataraxia doesn’t deserve to be subjected to such horrible treatment. Even if she did choose to live this lifestyle in the first place.

Ataraxia does finger gestures so that I can introduce myself. I pretend like I don’t know what she’s saying. She squints her eyes at me briefly, and then she introduces me for me.

“Guys, this is Saya. He’s my good friend,” Ataraxia points at me while introducing me in a dry tone. Ah, I feel so awful for forcing her to do this. Wait, I didn’t force her to do anything, so she is the one to feel awful for dragging me along to her house.

“Hiya, I’m Rysalin,” one of the boys says in a “semi-cheerful” (I don’t know what I’m saying) tone. I glance at the other boy. He looks exactly like this boy! So they’re–

“Twins,” the other boy says, finishing my thought. “We are twins. By the way, I’m Rashaun.”

Ah, but they’re not from this planet. I think. They could be?

There are planets which accommodate the many unique races across Khion Moa. For example, the planet we’re at is Haltia, which Ataraxia and I are natives of.

However, planets have different resources and different environments to help races make a living, which is pretty much the reason why people live at their native planets. Not to mention racism, galactic tax, alien governments and more, but those are entirely different topics I’d rather not get into right now.

Anyway, just keep in mind people just keep to their own because of a multitude of reasons.

However.

Some species can adapt to environments more easily than others. That is why I said these two incubi twins might be inhabitants here. I’ll just ask.

“Are you two Haltians, by any chance?” I ask to either of the two. It’s not like it matters anyway, since they’re identical and I’ll never talk to them again after today.

“Oh, um, no, we live on Cambridge,” one of the twins say. I know they gave me names but how am I supposed to remember? That’s asking too much of me…

“I’m not surprised, but your species live everywhere so I just thought about asking,” I say to the twin I’m talking to.

“Yes. It’s widely known for us to live on different planets for… obvious reasons,” one of the twins respond. I’m just going to refer to them as that. If they’re by themselves, I’m just going to say “the twin.”

Obvious reasons, hmm. “So what brings you two here?” I ask to the twins. If they say they’re here for “work” then I wouldn’t mind under normal circumstances. However… they’re friends of Ataraxia. Or at least she says they are. They are the alleged friends of Ataraxia.

“Saya, you know why. It’s because I told them to come over so that they could talk to you,” Ataraxia says in a slightly irritated way. Hmph.

“Ah, I should word it this way… why are you on Haltia? I mean, it’s expensive getting here, after all,” I raise an eyebrow. Well, by normal means it’s pretty expensive getting to different planets.

“Oh, uh, we are here thanks to Morxie,” one of the twins point to the small girl sitting on the floor that hasn’t spoken yet. “Morxie was traveling around there for some time, and Ataraxia asked if Morxie could come pick us up and take us to her apartment.”

I look at her. She’s a… Mumconian. Mumconians are plant-like (more specifically pumpkin-like) beings who aren’t known to interact with other races… and that’s all I know. Oh, wait. There is this Mumconian guy named Castage who is #1 on the Incursion leaderboard.

I look at her for a bit. She is wearing a white top hat with rabbit ears coming out of it. The hat has little beads in front of it, and there is a little bow tied to the hat as well. She’s also wearing a white dress and a crimson bowtie.

And her face. Her face is so white. It looks like she saw a ghost and got spooked ever since. Well, besides that, she has two circular eyes with two eyelashes. Yes. Just two, respective eyelashes. Although, if she’s supposed to be a plant (okay, plant-like), why does she have eyelashes to begin with? That’s just… stupid.

Um, anyway. Her legs are weird too. They look like peg legs. With black stockings. Her hands look fine, though. She has all five fingers, which somehow don’t look awkward with her peg legs.

I guess I should add that she doesn’t even look that cute. No offense to ugly women. Actually, ALL offense to ugly women.

Anyways, anyways, anyway.

Is she gonna say something or what? I’ve been looking at her quite a while, enough to make someone annoyed, and yet she doesn’t say something. She just does a blank stare at me for a second and then goes back to her phone.

“Morxie, can you say something to Saya?” Ataraxia taps on Morxie’s shoulder.

And you will never believe how she sounds like.

“Uh-huh,” Morxie says in a apathetic tone. Okay… her voice was so deep. And not in “normal, deep woman tone,” but in “deep, middle-aged man tone.”

Like seriously, WHAT happened?! What does she(?) sound like this? What is going on?!

Somehow, Morxie reads my expression and starts laughing.

“Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha, did you really think I was a girl, or sumthin?” Morxie laughs hysterically. “I’m so happy. I know it’s an old joke, but–um–well, I like it when I see peoples’s reactions, y’know? You’ve been trapped!”

No, I don’t know. But I guess this, in a way, explains why Morxie looks so tacky, coupled with his distinguishing neckbeard voice.

“By the way, I don’t know a lot about dress-up or whatever you wanna call it. I just found an outfit like this in a magazine and thought that I should buy it,” Morxie puts his phone in his hat, as he literally has no pockets, and stands up. He’s not very tall. I think he’s around 4 feet, at least. Without his hat, that is.

Suddenly, he starts to circle around me, eyeing me down. He clasps his hand on his… chin? He’s supposed to be a mutated pumpkin or something, so… I’m not sure what to call it.

Anyway, he just stares at me while circling me. Finally, he says something.

“Ataraxia, you can leave if you want. Nobody is forcing you to stay here.”

Which is something I’d rather not hear. After all, I don’t want to stay here, but I also don’t want to be rude.

“Morxie, I… I’m… I’ll ask Saya if he’s okay with it,” Ataraxia responds in a not-so-prompt way.

“Ah, well. That sucks, I guess,” Morxie shrugs.

Ataraxia directly asks me if I’m okay with her leaving. How embarrassing. It feels like she’s acting like my mom when I was a toddler. Well, that’s not the embarrassing part. I thought that was cute. What is embarrassing was the fact that there were other people (plus one plant) around to witness this.

Plus it’ll feel like I’m slaving her around to be with me for no good reason and that I clearly don’t trust these people (and plant.)

In other words, I can’t tell her to stay, even though I want her to.

And she seems to have no problem with it and says that she’ll go order some smoothies for us. I don’t know how that’ll work for Morxie, though.

And so, it’s just the four of us.

The two incubi, a crossdressing plant, and a dark elf. Me.

“Wooow, You told Ataraxia off. You know, I wouldn’t get mad or something if you told her to stay. It’s totally understandable. ‘Nyway, can you follow me to the bathroom,” Morxie continues rambling, and for a second I don’t know who he’s talking to because my stomach dropped as soon as Ataraxia left the door, “Saya.”

It’s almost like she was planning this from the start. I’m definitely going to have a talk with her.

“Saya,” Morxie repeats, less patient this time.

“Oh, uh, yeah?”

“Can we go to the bathroom together? I want to chit-chat.”

“Ummm, that’s kind of freaky, I mean, creepy.”

“Just come anyway? Sheesh. Does it look like I can do anything to you?”

He’s right. If he tries anything funny, I can just knock him down flat.

Actually, that’s the only thing I wish I have to do. I don’t–correction–I won’t have to take drastic measures.

“Okay, I’m coming,” I call out to… nobody. Because Morxie has gone missing, presumably to the bathroom.

“Uh, where’d he go?” I ask to either of the twins, who’re still in the living room, thankfully.

“To the bathroom,” one of the twins say.

Sigh.

“Where is the bathroom?” I ask.

“Near Ataraxia’s room,” the same twin responds.

I’m sick and tired of this nonsense.

“And where is Ataraxia’s room?”

“At the left.” Finally, some useful information.

“Thank you so much,” I mumble.

I open the door. Honestly, if he’s here to share a secret he may as well say it in the living room, since this door isn’t stopping anyone from hearing in on us, even by accident. I mean, the bathroom is so close to the living room.

So maybe he just wanted to talk in here because he simply thought nobody would hear?

What.

“Well, Saya. Saya, I’m Morx Mumkin. I’m sure you knew ‘Morxie’ was just a cute nickname, because it just sounds too cute, right?” Morxie’s standing on the toilet while rambling again.

“Ah… I mean, I guess I had a feeling?”

“Huh. I see.”

“So, um, what did you need from me?”

“I suppose I’m trying to ask, hm. How do I word this. What I wanted to ask of you… I wanted to ask of if you do maaaaaaagic,” Morxie starts to parkour from the toilet to the sink to the toilet to the bathtub all over again. If I did that, there’d be a lot of creaking, but due to his petite build there is little noise.

But anyway.

“I do, actually. I started when I was 8. Also, I’ve been studying a lot of magic online and from grimoires,” somehow, my lips starts curling up. I hate myself for grinning because it’s pretty obvious that I’m smiling due to my own feats.

“Huh. So you’re the type to smile about your own accomplishments. That’s so petty!” Morxie slips into the bathtub with a loud “thump” noise. And unfortunately, he noticed my grin. Ugh.

“Um, are you okay?” I ask.

“Well, I’m not complaining. Anyway, I asked because I also know magic! In fact, I have a ton of friends who know about it–well, hm. Never mind, actually, I have three. Is that a big number? Hnnnh,” he starts to get comfortable in the bathtub. He even pulls down a towel and uses it as a blanket. Which doesn’t make sense you’re a plant you don’t need a blanket or even clothes.

Okay? Where is he getting at. Also, I have some questions: 1, How does he not make any noise with that sharp peg leg of his–there should be a fork scraping a plate noise, like how is there no noise. 2, that’s not that big deal, literally everyone knows about magic, it’s not an open secret or anything, and 3, why is he asking me about this?

“Uh, so why are you asking about magic?” I ask him. Because like I said, him not knowing that magic is open to the public makes no sense but then again there isn’t a lot of information concerning Mumconians, so I wouldn’t know.

“Well, well. I was asking because I can do it, and I wanted us fight. Specifically, I wanted to test your skill. Are you amazing, or not?” Before I can even ask why we should fight, he pulls something out of a dark void.

A shotgun. Specifically, a trench gun. As it is a shotgun, it’s obviously going to be long.

It looks very advanced, though. I don’t know a lot about firearms, but this one clearly is different. It seems as if it’s made out of some strong material. Like, it looks very marbly. A very pretty white. What makes it even more beautiful is the fact that there’s not a single scratch on it. Besides that, there’s a dark square in the front, which is probably where all the ammunition comes from. Oh, but what distinguishes it the most from other guns is the small trigger on the top. It’s looks like a reverse trigger, if I were to describe it.

A beautiful weapon.

“Also, it’s not a regular shotgun, obviously. If it was you’d easily be able to overtake me. It doubles as a melee weapon. In other words… it’s a bayonet. I have two, but it’s the same model as this one, so I don’t really think I should flex it,” Morxie then stands up and positions himself in a position that makes it seem like he’s ready to shoot. The weird thing is, there isn’t a knife or anything attached to the gun, so is he just fibbing or not?

“W-Wow. That’s a pretty weapon,” is all I can muster up. It’s true, though. If I had the motivation, I’d try a learning different class.

“Yes. Everyone says that. Not to use weasel words, but everyone says that,” he smiles.

“U-Um, but do you really wanna fight me?” I ask him. I mean, is it really that necessary? Plus, I am pretty sure I can subdue his bullets easily, so I’d might make him upset. Even if that is a beautiful weapon, it’s just that–beautiful.

However, those are phrases I’d say if he was a normal opponent.

Unless those guns are just for show or he just takes care of them, it should be obvious by now that he’s never tasted defeat, at least recently anyway.

But the fact that the gun is so pristine–

–I might be making a fool of myself by choosing to attack him.

“Now, now. I know what you’re thinking, ‘He’s clearly trying to make put my own foot in my mouth,’ which do want to do, kinda. But I also wanted to test your skill. I hardly ever get to fight anyone. Like, I wanna kick ass!” Morxie starts swinging fists in the air.

“W-Well, when you put it that way, I guess I can’t refuse,” I say. I’m totally going to get my ass kicked. “But where are we going to fight? It’s not like we can be outside or something.”

“Well, remember when one of the twins said that I brought us here?” Morxie does this devilish grin. Always grinning, I see.

“Yeah.”

“By that logic, I can bring you to other places, right?”


“Wh-What? How can you even do this?”

“By magic? That much should be obvious.”

“I know, but… how?”

“Truth is, I’m a super-duper powerful being!” Morxie starts giggling. It’s almost as if he thinks what he said was a joke. Of course, I’m sure he is joking about himself, but he’s also not?

What am I saying.

What I’m trying to say is that he is powerful, but was trying to make it seem as if he was joking? I’m not sure if that makes sense still.

But still, all this anticipation is killing me.

“Alright, Mumkin. You can take me,” I boldly say.

“The hell was that? You don’t need to call me by my surname. Sheesh,” Morxie shakes his head, except he can’t, because I don’t see him having a neck or anything similar, so his entire body has to move. “I get kids these days wanna act like a superhero, but that was very… cringe.” He shook his head again and then does this expression that clearly expresses his cringe. Now I really wanna get me ass beat.

Subject change time.

“U-Um? Kids these days? Aren’t you a kid?” I ask him, frantically looking for a way out of this.

Thankfully, he doesn’t call me out on it. “Huh. I’m 19, but am I? Does being a teenager count as being a child?” he ponders on that question. “I mean, people say once you turn 18, you’re an adult, but by that logic shouldn’t you be an adult by 13?”

“I haven’t thought of that. Maybe it’s because you look like an adult when you’re 18?”

“But what about by the time you’re 17? Or 16? 15? 14? Or even younger? If you look like an adult then, should you be classified as one?”

I haven’t thought of deep questions like that. But what does he care, he’s a plant. In the body of an 10-year-old.

“W-Well, I never thought of that. Maybe just because you look like an adult doesn’t mean you are one. I mean, I know kids who look like adults and haven’t even hit puberty.”

Morxie, for example (do plants even hit puberty?). And my cousin.

“Hmm… anyway, all this talk is making me bored. Let’s go!” Suddenly, his hat gets bigger and bigger. Thankfully, it doesn’t get big enough for the bathroom to collapse on us.

And causing us to die.

Getting to our destination feels quick. I fall out of a… wall and then plop on the ground, which is just a bunch of purple grids.

An aesthetically pleasing color.

“Hurry up and get in the hat. It’ll basically act like… a simulated arena. Of course, you can die in here because the hat is parasitic, but there shouldn’t be a problem since it’s feeding on my head,” Morxie explains while looking through his shotgun barrel.

“But if it’s feeding on your head, then why would you wear it?” I ask. I mean, it just looks like it’s there for decoration anyway, so why can’t you just get a hat that looks exactly like that without the parasites?

“Basically… it amplifies my strength and makes me stronger. And don’t worry, the energy it takes from me normally isn’t a lot. Oh, and one more thing. I can tell it how much energy it can take if I want, and obviously, the more energy it consumes equals more power. But then again, I’d have to make sure I don’t make a mistake, because I might do the plant equivalent of ‘passing out.’ Ahahahaha,” Morxie laughs again. But that makes no sense if your energy is being consumed for a higher attack and defense…

Like, isn’t that kind of… bad? You’d need a lot of energy if you rely on that hat.

But, say, if he wears this on a daily basis, he is probably full of it. Which is bad.

“Um, why’re you wearing that hat if we are inside the hat?” I ask. By no means is that logical.

“It is a simulation. It’s just there for visualization,” he explains once more. “See, I can make Apokkryphalia’s out of thin air,” dollars go flying in the air.

“Now, here’s a question for you. Where is your weapon? I’ve showed you mine, now where’s yours?” Morxie points at me with the middle finger. I’m not sure if that was done on purpose or not.

“Okay, here’s my weapon,” I go through my pocket and, to my surprise.

Morxie’s shotgun comes out. An exact copy of his.

“Aha, here’s my weapon,” I sneer at him.

Very comedic, having a weapon that obviously can’t fit in my pocket come out anyway. It defies all logic, which makes this even more comedic.

I believe this is called hammerspace? Or maybe that’s what Morxie did with his shotgun in the bathtub.

“Haha, very funny. I’m going to have to tell my hat to shut that feature off for now so nobody cheats,” Morxie claps twice, and suddenly the shotgun imposter blips out of existence.

Bloop.

“For real, man. Where is it?” He taps the grid-ground.

“Here you go,” I go through my pocket, and realizing that a gun won’t come out, I pull out my real weapon.

It’s a black wand.

Actually, it doesn’t even look like one. It’s more like a black pen-looking thing. Except the tip, the very tip is white.

“Interesting. I’ve never seen something like that, hm. Well, let’s begin,” he points the shotgun at me, ready to shoot. “Oh, and don’t be afraid of hurting me.”

“I won’t!”

“Good. Now let’s begin for real.”

And so, we start our battle.

“Second Incursion,” I shout. It’s a fun spell. It does take a huge chunk of mana, but it explodes twice as long as your target doesn’t have a counter. It’s also included in the “Incursion” series of spells that Incursion gives to you if you decide to register for it. Hence the name.

By the way, mana and energy are two different things. Mana is magical energy, and it can charge up on its own or by drinking a potion or magic itself. Obviously, if you run out of mana you can’t use magic.

You can increase (or freeze) your mana by learning certain spells or by equipping certain items. I’ve only learned a spell that decreases my mana consumption as long as I’m not effected by any spells.

Energy, on the other hand, is just stamina. It’s not magic, it’s simply just… energy. It helps you run and walk.

So I’m guessing that hat Morxie’s wearing will slow him down if we keep this up for some time.

“…” Morxie moves his mouth, but I can’t hear anything. What I do know is when he shoots his gun, out comes a bullet.

A. Bullet. One bullet. Not plural, just one.

Huh?

I do know that’s how shotguns work, but still? I thought this was some magical gun?

I’m about to laugh until I notice the bullet goes through my spell. What? How?! “Shield of the Dark Maiden…” I stammer. Uh, that is just a shield that envelops me in a dark ball. Enemies can’t see in it, but I can see outside of it. Think of it as those, uh, windows that are tinted.

I did level up my shield to level 3, so it should protect me from at least three bullets from Morxie. Although, I’d be lying if I said I get a feeling that he’s going to destroy my shield anyway. If he does, then I’ll just use the Fourth Incursion spell, which should at least make his bullet slower.

The bullet goes through my shield. No, it didn’t, it shattered it. But of course it did, that’s what happens if an attack is stronger. What I didn’t expect is that the bullet would hit me and explode.

It feels like attached a rope which is, in turn, is attached to a high-speeding car that’s on a road with a ton of speed bumps, and I’m getting dragged around the asphalt.

Yeah. I would’ve used a different shield spell, but the Incursion series, plus that shield spell are all I know.

In other words, I just lie on the floor like a sore loser. Then Morxie walks towards me, and points his white shotgun at my face.

“Check. Also, remember how I said this gun is a bayonet? Well… here,” he flicks the trigger on the top.

A knife was inside the gun the entire time. It switches to me, and then Morxie continues point it at me. It’s just an inch away from my eye. If I got up, it would probably be gouged out.

I forgot that there was a reason why his gun was perfect. Or maybe he’s perfect, not the weapon.

“Now, now. I’m not that powerful,” Morxie moves the shotgun away from my face and inspects the blade. “Damn… the tip is chipped…” he’s talking about the melee part of the gun. I guess maybe he has tasted defeat then?

Well, everyone has at some point.

“Anyways! I won! You were really, really weak. And very, very, just very slow, too. Why didn’t you try dodging or something?!” Morxie huffs in an exasperated tone. “My bullets can’t follow you. It isn’t like a homing missile. So why didn’t you think? Sheesh.”

“I-I thought… I wasn’t thinking! You’re right about that… uhh… I just thought that um… I was baffled by the fact your bullet destroyed my spell,” I try to explain.

“Huh. Also, can you do me a favor and stop with the ‘uh’s’ and stuttering? They’re getting on my nerves, to be honest,” Morxie’s shotgun is gone, so he probably put it back in that void in came from. “But that still doesn’t explain why you chose to do that, um, spell.”

“I guess could say I was a little confident in my shield,” I offer this weak explanation.

“Okay. Well, I’m done with you, so… yeah. We can go back now,” I can hear glee from the tone of his voice.

To me, it seems as if he wanted to let me know that he was happy over his victory over me. But he wanted to fight against someone “amazing,” so shouldn’t he be disappointed?

Unless he knew I wasn’t up to par as he, and that he’s a sadist.

But to me, that’s not important. What’s important is how is he so powerful?

To be frank, I’m still a beginner. You know how you’re learning how to play an instrument, for instance, a piano, for a long time because you are stagnant on it, not because you’ve actually been making progress on it for a long time?

That’s basically what I am. I started at 8, but I just learned a few spells for the timespan of thirteen years.

Right, right. I joined Incursion at 8 because I wanted to learn spells to protect Ataraxia. I got teased by my cousin for being a white knight when I informed him about it. Due to my attention span at that age, I haven’t done much afterwards, but now I’m taking it a lot more seriously because of the reason I gave and so I can do the quests given by Incursion.

Ack, I’m getting off topic. Where I’m trying to go with this is that due to the fact I haven’t been consistently studying magic, Morxie is obviously going to be more powerful than me.

But still, the shield wasn’t that weak. Plus, he shot through two things, my spell and the shield. It only detonated when it hit me.

I wouldn’t know, know, because I’ve picked up magic only recently (a few months ago), but my intuition tells me that he’s “super-duper” powerful. Like he said before.

“Morxie, how’re you so powerful?” I ask him. I need to know.

“Oh, I am? But you’re just weak, so just learn more magic? And level up your skills? And maybe change–oh, never mind. Just learn more spells and level them up.” He tilts his head. Actually, no. It still appears that he doesn’t have a neck, so he has to tilt his entire body.

“Wait! What level are you?” I ask him.

He starts grimacing.

“Uhh, what?” he asks me.

Oh, maybe he doesn’t know what I mean.

“What echelon, I mean,” I ask him.

“What’s that?”

“Wait, what? You don’t know?”

“Nil.”

But how does he not know? He’s really powerful (for lack of better word “OP,”) so how does he not know about Incursion either? Is Mumconia shut in from the rest of the universe?

Echelons, basically, are the level you are at in the class you are in. The second you register for Incursion, it shows your echelon, or level. The higher you are at, the more powerful you are. It even gives you stat bonuses. The highest echelon you can get to is 100. (I’m 14, unfortunately.) By the way, the registration for Incursion requires you to do a placement test that consists of attacking dummies (or dangerous creatures, depending on how confident you think you are), and if successful (or not) you get placed at your echelon. Since I mentioned “classes,” I’m going to start off by saying there are a variety of those. They’re what you can be in the magic community, and you can choose as many as you want, but you’ll start off at Echelon 0 if you decide to choose a new one, and since that takes a lot of hard work, many people just stick with one class.

For example, I’m a mage, and Morxie is an artillerist. Does that knife inside the gun count as a different class? If so, then that’s…

“Well, I don’t know what else to say but you’re definitely at echelon 30. But you’re pretty amazing, Morxie, I hope to get to that level someday,” I compliment him. It’s true, though. Now I have a bigger motivation than I had before, since I know I can get more powerful if my junior can.

“Oh, but I’m not. You just need the right equipments and weapons. And spells,” he crosses his hands. “When you have all those, nothing else really matters, at least in my opinion.”

“That does make sense. Um, maybe you should join Incursion, if you haven’t already,” I ask him.

Pause.

“What’s that?” he asks. “No, seriously, I haven’ heard of it before.”

How does he not know about it? Literally everyone knows about Incursion, even old folk. Even my little brother, who doesn’t involve himself with magic knows about it. Probably because I talk about it every day and maybe his classmates brought it up at some point but still. The point is, even shut-in Mumconians should know about it.

So how does he not–

Oh. That’s how it is.

“It’s an international organization that let’s you do quests and bounties for money and other prizes, like weapons and exclusive spells. They even do giveaways,” I explain to him in the simplest way possible.

“Oh, I see,” he puts a hand to his hand–I mean, hand to his head. “I’ll look into it.”

“Yeah. I’m sure you’ll be pretty popular. In fact, I don’t know why you haven’t already, ahaha,” I start smiling. Except there was no reason for me to, so why am I?

“Popularity, hm. To be honest, I’m not interested in that whole thing, so I’m a bit uncertain if I should,” he does this full body shake again.

“Why not?” I ask.

“I don’t want to be popular is all,” Morxie doesn’t answer my question at all, which isn’t a problem, so I’m not going to nag him about it. “Now let’s get going. My smoothie has probably melted by now.”

Oh yeah.

“Morxie, how do you drink smoothies if you’re a plant? Does that count as cannibalism, or what?” I am genuinely curious.

“I don’t, and it’s not a regular smoothie. I like the meat of things,” he says with his back facing me.

Before I know it, we get out of the hat and back in the bathroom. I hear Ataraxia’s voice, so she probably arrived some time ago. How’ll I explain that I was in the bathroom with her friend?

She’ll most likely be happy that I made a “new friend,” which is great and all, but I can’t help but feel that there’s something about Morxie that just doesn’t add up. How does he not know about Incursion?

Answer, he lied about it. He come all the way from Cambridge to Haltia and is going to pretend like he didn’t hear about it at some point. And if you’re still not convinced, one of those twins said that Morxie was traveling around Cambridge for no explained reason, Morxie has a phone, so he could’ve heard about it from a search engine, and he has friends from different planets (I’ve decided that these are legitimate friends of Ataraxia just to prove my theory), who have probably talked about it at some point.

So what the hell is the reasoning behind him pretending that he doesn’t know stuff?

Note from drkenny: Hello. Writer speaking. Thanks for reading my "special" Charlie and Friends one shot. In case you're wondering where the title came from, basically "Charlie" was a character I made up a long time ago for some childrens' comics. However, I decided to not do so, but I decided to keep the title because...

...I couldn't think of anything else more appropriate. Unfortunately, Charlie would probably be upset for me using his name for a series not about him. So once I pick up Charlie and Friends in the future I'll come up with reasoning and why I chose this name.

By the way, the reason why this is a one shot is because I often don't finish stories, so I did myself a favor and just made one chapter. After I'm finished typing, I'll probably cringe and say, "Gosh, why didn't I do more with the twins in this chapter?"

I think there are a lot of foreshadowing for a single chapter, though, so once I pick it up again I'll probably delete some things.

Anyway! Sorry for this long note so I'll leave for now.

"And by the way", some of the characters (Saya, Morx, Rysalin, and Rashaun) are based on some people I know. Just a fun fact.

For real, though, goodbye.

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About the Creator

drkenny

I'm really sorry for the inactivity, but I really did love Vocal!

Thank you very much. Please buy the Vocal premium! It's worth it!

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