EvAr Part 1

[quote=”lainastanford, post:110, topic:27179”] I am amused by the terrible pun. [/quote] I learn from only the best :smirk:

[quote=”lainastanford, post:110, topic:27179”] YEAH! Oh, the power of the dorky magnet! [/quote]

I’m glad your cameo was satisfactory to your liking!

I will now take a quick detour and continue the next part following the short story of Arrival as it’s important to the ending of the Refrigerator story arc…

Day 35: EvAr Part 1

After a lovely housewarming with the family of Araceli and Teyo, the three of us sat outside the small abode to take in the afterglow of such a delicious and filling meal. After settling down to enjoy the afternoon air, I decided to ask more about their lives.

“So what do you two do when you’re not at home?”

Araceli took the lead of the conversation: “Well, when we aren’t doing chores, homework, or walking to/from school several hours away on foot, we help out with our dad in the fields. Fortune must have smiled upon my ancestors, because we own just enough land to grow crops for the entire year to make sure our family never starves,and also have a little bit left over to sell in town to make a bit of extra cash!”

“In fact, you came at just the right time!” Teyo exclaimed. “Right now is just about harvesting season for our corn yield, and we’d love to take you along for the experience.”

“Teyo!” Araceli scolded. “You don’t ask guests to help with farm labor, that’s just rude!”

“Not to worry, Araceli! I was actually looking for a way to repay all your hospitality. If getting my hands dirty even pays back just a bit of your family’s kindness, I’d call that more than a fair exchange,” I gleamed.

“Well…” Araceli began to trail off, but Teyo took her silence as acceptance of his suggestion, and a devious smile quickly flashed across his face. I decided to not make note of it as it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. After all, how hard could harvesting corn be?

You know, maybe generosity and acts of kindness are not the keys to the kingdom, I thought to myself as I tumbled into the ground for what seemed like the umpeeth time that hour. Araceli was looking on with a worried expression while Teyo could not contain himself in laughter, and neither could the bumble husk apparently as it buzzed about amusingly.

According to Teyo, these bumble husks were a natural phenomena whenever farmers tried to harvest their corn, as mostly harmless but extremely irritating pests that grew in maturity as their corny home began to ripen. In a last ditch effort to protect their corny counterparts, the husks found themselves a new life as giant bumbling insect-like authorities. Their only means of defense was quite literally bumbling into any would-be harvesters, and anyone not well-versed in the way of the bumble husks would find themselves quickly infuriated at the whole ordeal.

What was not before me was a bumble husk, however, but a rival mocking my very existence. Fuming in the head, Teyo took my very apparent frustration as a sign that he should finally step in.

“Want to learn the secret to taking care of these baddies?” Teyo asked confidently.

“SURE. WHATEVER. IT’S NOT LIKE YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME 30 MINUTES AGO WHEN I ASKED IF I NEEDED TO KNOW ANYTHING,” I snapped coldly.

At Teyo’s signal, he told everyone watching to be quiet and focus. He said to “wait for the wind,” and it would be obvious after a quick demonstration. Just as Teyo promised, as soon as the first waves of wind hit the corn fields, he sprung to life. Using the wind’s momentum, he carried himself towards the nearest bumble husk, preparing for the attack. The bumble husk sensed his intent, and moved accordingly to what it expected Teyo’s imminent attack pattern to be. Unfortunately for the bumble husk, Teyo was just a bit faster than what it was expecting, and found itself on the receiving side of a nasty wallop to the face. Teyo repeated this tactic three more times before the bumble husk could stand his attacks no more, and disintegrated into an infinite number of blue and white shards.

Disintegrate? I asked the two if this how things “die” in this world, and Araceli confirmed that my hypothesis was correct. According to Araceli, every “thing” in this world had a numerical value to represent its durability, and once its durability reached zero, the “thing” would disintegrate into nothingness. A chill ran down my spine wondering what happens if a person’s durability reached zero, and Teyo offered to take me down to the nearby graveyard so I could find out myself. Afraid yet intrigued at the offer, I told Teyo I would have to take a rain-check as I still had one more battle immediately ahead of me: the last tango between the bumble husk and I.

Using Teyo’s simple advice, I began to calm myself. I focused on only myself in that corn field, and quickly blocked out all the sights, sounds, and feelings of the worlds. Once I found myself isolated in this empty void, I opened my senses just a bit to pick up traces of the bumble husk. Once it was nothing but me and the bumble husk, I once again opened my my senses just a little bit more to await for traces of the wind. A calm but soothing wind soon found itself at my backside, and then something strange happened.

My left arm began to instinctively tingle, and just as if I had done this technique thousands of times prior to this moment, I let the wind ride by my side. Slowly I caressed the wind from my shoulders all the way to my palm, and once it reached my palm it began to aggregate. At my go, I pointed all the compressed air dead-on into the direction of the bumble husk, and released.

In that moment, the entire field went silent. Teyo, Araceli, and even the bumble husk itself watched in awe as I conjured a wind gale seemingly out of nowhere and had it instantly collide with the unexpecting bumble husk. The bumble husk soared across the field quickly before instantly turning into the well-known blue and white particles, and then, another moment of silence met our trio.

“That… was… so…. awesome!!! How did you do that Met??? Can you teach me to do that too???” Teyo excitedly declared as he ran to come and meet me. Araceli, however, was not equally as impressed. Worried, in fact, was the only expression crossing her face.

“Did you… just use an EvAr?”

“EvAr? What the heck is that?”, I asked inquisitively.

“EvAr is short for Evolving Art. Is it a gift granted to us by the gods where we are able to give life to the inanimate magic inside of us. EvAr… is something only given to those deemed worthy, and they are the pinnacle of the society that stands ontop our current world. Which is to say, the rich and ruling class and not people like me and Teyo.”

Araceli then paused and coughed nervously before asking the next question. “Why… do you have an EvAr, Met?”

Sensing the rising hostility emanating from Araceli, I decided to reflect on what I knew so far before giving her an unsatisfactory answer. Could my EvAr stem from some facet of my unknown past? And why a Wind EvAr?

Just as I was fixated on my Wind EvAr, a menu screen popped up in front of me.

Menu screen?

I focused my vision on the menu screen, and noted it’s simplicity: Wind Evolving Art: Level 1. Sub Arts: None Experience to Next Level: 9.

Weird, why is a game menu appearing in the real world? Could Araceli and Teyo also see this menu? I decided to then try and see if either of the two also had a Wind EvAr, and was taken aback by what I saw. Or rather, what I didn’t see. The same menu as mine popped up alonside each person, but the Level and accompanying information was all blurred out violently like it wasn’t meant to be seen.

“Do you two… know what the level of your Wind EvAr you are?”

“Level? What the heck are you talking about? You’re sure still doing alright, Met? You just used EvAr, and you got knocked upside the head one too many times thanks to a certain someone…” Araceli began glaring at Teyo, but continuing keeping one eye on me.

“Come on, Met, you gotta show me how you did that! Please Araceli, it’s not everyday you meet someone who can use EvAr AND they actually treat us like normal people”, Teyo pleaded.

Just as Araceli looked like she was about to shut down Teyo’s insane request, I decided to step in and save face while I still could. “Listen Araceli, I know you’re probably suspicious of me and quite frankly, I am too. But if you claim that only the rich and gifted can learn EvAr, what’s the harm in trying to teach Teyo. After all, if it were up to me, I would say that EvAr is for EvAryone!”

Araceli sighed, both at the ridiculous request and my shoe-horned in pun, but against her maternal instincts, decided to just give it a go and see what would happen. Teyo celebrated and quickly ran to give his sister a big ol’ hug, then quickly got down to business to see what he could learn from me.

And on that day, the world received its first ever peasant EvAr user. @dragon @homeroom11