Quinlan Astin Medley

  Socializer Relative

  Level 85

  REP: 46/100

  SB: 40%

  EB: 96%

  MB: 90%

  Flaw Level 5

  FP: 2/10

  Quinlan had spent most of his life isolating himself in his room, learning to code, as his father had taught him when he was much younger and spent more time with him. His parents thought he should take advantage of his intelligence and take coding courses for children.

  He'd eventually started making games on his Pet, which kept him entertained while his father hid at work, his mother obsessed over his sister, and his other sister went up to work at a space station. He was used to being alone, but he kept himself updated on the girls.

  He’d found Katelyn’s scrambler by mistake about a year ago when he’d snooped in her room. His mother had given him the idea since the viewers were getting bored, and she figured some sibling mischief would pique their attention. Katelyn had left her door unlocked, so he went and looked around for a while, making snarky comments about her stuff to make the fans laugh. Then, he stepped on something— it looked a bit like a spider, but it was made of metal, with a long body and eight, short legs.

  When he realized what it was, he quickly hid it. Fortunately, the fans were too stupid to notice.

  Unexpectedly, Katelyn returned from work early and caught him, resulting in her yelling and kicking him out, but she didn’t notice he’d kept the scrambler. When he finally hinted to her that he knew she’d been hacking, she disabled her room’s micro-cameras and swore him to secrecy in exchange for teaching him.

  Since no one really cared about him as much as they did Calista, Quinlan got away with freezing his room’s feed and getting his privacy. He’d gotten closer to Katelyn, frequenting her room to learn more tips and tricks, but he also annoyed her a lot, providing a bit of sibling rivalry to entertain the viewers.

  He never got to talk to Calista much, but despite that, he felt close enough to her. He’d watch her come home every day with exhaustion on her face, barely hidden behind a smile. Many times, she’d return with another ridiculous body mod that made her practically unrecognizable. Just watching her struggle through her mother’s orders and that constant threat of the viewer tracker made him feel miserable for her.

  So, when he finally found out about Calista and Katelyn’s adventure on Genesis X, and they hatched a plan to get her to the fighting school exams together, he was so excited to be a part of it. It was the first time the three of them were planning something together, all by themselves, with no interference from their parents— mainly their mother.

  That excitement turned to anxiety, though, when their mother returned home earlier than anticipated with the two goblins and the Makakian— as Quinlan described the three leading members of the SociaLights— along with a gaggle of their drooling Aelkets that followed them around constantly, desperately craving their approval.

  Aelkets were an unintelligent species of tall, snot-skinned aliens with bugged-out eyes and strange, honking noises constantly leaving their mouths. Planet Aelk was technically included in the Utopia due to the great resources in their soil, but that was all they were useful for; their species wasn’t even worth taking as slaves. They would be cute, acting like puppies following a master, if they weren’t so ugly-lookng.

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  These ‘channel members’ were just like them, their eyes wide with admiration for the three leaders, and Quinlan never understood why. If they kept modding themselves at this rate, they’d probably end up looking like an Aelket sometime.

  “Mom? What happened to the… the conference thing you were doing?” Quinlan rushed out of the HARP room, where he was watching one of his favorite shows.

  “It got canceled,” said his mother. She tossed back her black hair, which was fixed in a half-up with wavy ends and decorative sunglasses perched atop her head. Sunglasses were a rare sight, bringing a unique ‘flair’ to her appearance, as she’d call it. “Doesn’t matter, though. Where’s Calista?” she asked.

  “Uh… in the seclusion thingy.” He stared at the group’s outfits; they wore pink, off-shoulder, skin-tight bodysuits with a heart-shaped bodice and large, heart-shaped bows that stuck out at the back. They wore tall boots in shining black and everyone’s hair was colored in red, pink, and white with thick, frilly hairstyles— they looked like they’d been in the humidity too long.

  The three channel leaders had the same outfits in red and their hair was colored in the same nylon black as Calista’s natural hair, fixed in high, straight ponytails. The look didn’t suit Elizabeth; she looked a lot better with her natural ginger hair.

  The outfits were ridiculous, in Quinlan’s opinion. He’d seen the dance rehearsals, so he knew these weren’t for that. What was the occasion?

  “Well, she needs a break. The SociaLights are doing a surprise meeting!” She clapped excitedly, the other trained seals doing the same.

  Quinlan’s heart raced with panic. “But I thought you said seclusion things weren’t supposed to be stopped.”

  Task In Progress: STOP MOM— Rep-P Undetermined

  “It’s been too long.” She started towards the elevator. “This is uber-important. Our special guest will be here any minute, and she needs to look-”

  Quinlan raced to stop her, getting strange looks from the girls. “Wa-wait-wait! She’s, uh… beauty-sleeping. You know? You can’t interrupt beauty sleeps.”

  “She’s had plenty of time to sleep.”

  “Yeah, but… what if she still has those bags under her eyes?”

  His mother raised a perfect brow. “Since when do you care about your sister’s looks?”

  “Uh… well… I think it’s… I want to learn more about it, I guess.” Quinlan ran back to the SociaLights. “Actually, I wanna talk to Cali’s friends for a bit. I think the fans will like me talking to them.”

  His mother gave him a long, calculating look. “Okay… I’ll get Calista in the meantime.”

  “Uh- them and you! Them and you. Because… I miss you. I want to talk to my mom.” Quinlan offered a sweet smile while inwardly gagging.

  Now, his mother adopted a look of concern. “Is there something wrong, Quin?” She came up to him.

  “No, it’s just… I’ve felt… lonely lately. I think all the fans will agree, right?”

  His mother opened the viewer tracker, and sure enough, the reactions were in the high positive zone, with comments popping up about how they wanted to get to know Quinlan better and how cute it was that he was suddenly so involved. Quinlan’s UI said:

  +15 Rep-P

  +5 Charisma

  +10 Manipulation

  “Okay… let’s talk. Come on, girls.” His mother led the big group to the dining room. The two goblins rolled their sparkling eyes, but the Makakian had a smile on her face. The other followers were obviously confused, but still went along with it.

  Task Complete: STOP MOM— Rep-P Earned

  Task In Progress: Distract SociaLights until the girls return— Rep-P Undetermined

  Quinlan felt a bit bad for secretly calling Elizabeth a Makakian. It essentially meant ‘coward’, but it was more insulting. Makakia was a voluntary slave planet to Hajja, having been too afraid to liberate themselves when the War of Ten was over, despite the free, bloodless ticket they’d have to become independent. Comparing someone to one of them was considered universally offensive across the Utopia.

  He never said it to Elizabeth’s face, but he couldn’t find another word to fit her. She was nice, but she ultimately did what the other girls told her to do, and he didn’t get why. From what he overheard in his family’s conversations, Elizabeth didn’t come from any Socializer family, so unlike the rest of them, she wasn’t expected to be in this life of pageants, channels, and Reputation Points. She chose it. But why?

  If Quinlan had to choose between being homeless up in a space station and having to spend his days with these awful girls as a fellow Socializer, he’d take the space station any day. Even at his young age, he’d spent his whole life pleasing the viewers, and it wasn’t even at the magnitude that Calista had to do. Why would Elizabeth choose to suffer with them?

  “This is more of a surprise for Calista than the fans,” his mother said. “I know there’s so many people that wanted this pair-up. What do you think, girls?” She looked at the leaders.

  “I think they’re the cutest couple,” said Danica with a huge smile. Quinlan could tell from the way she kneaded her fingers that she was angry. “It’ll be so uber-romantic when we all get our pairs together.”

  Couple? A stone settled in Quinlan’s stomach.