Calista Elise Medley

  First-Year One Student

  Level 2

  XP: 52/100

  HP: 92/100

  EP: 57/100

  RP Status: Disrespected— -38 RP

  Weakness Lvl 17

  The days succeeding the ‘drowning incident’ were grueling. Not a lot of people heard about the incident, but enough of the first-years knew about it, now referring to her as the ‘drowning girl’. She’d gained five Rep points— pity points. The ‘Contempt’ sub-stat had changed to ‘Pity’ after that day. She didn’t say a word about it to Katelyn, keeping her fa?ade during every holo-call. Kate would uber-freak if she found out.

  Lindsay had chastised her for not going to the Infirmary, but Calista didn’t want to seem even weaker than she already was. Besides, she was already going for a consultation during her Break period on Monday so she could get on reconstructive therapy. She’d take care of it then.

  However, her performance in Practicum classes steeply declined, the damage from the incident having weakened her muscles further. She lost a few Rep points, but it seemed like the other students were getting used to her failing and falling at every turn. Lindsay begged her to acquire a Medical Excuse for classes leading to her consultation, but she refused. She would still work. She would still train.

  She still stuck to her plan to study the other students’ social ways. Once she got the meds she needed, she’d have enough energy to start trying to make friends. She got the gist of what they talked about; astropolitics, geopolitics, fighting techniques, famous Versus fighters, and some arcade games Calista was learning to play for just a few minutes in her free time. She spent her meals in the Mess Hall again, observing and listening to the other first-years’ conversations.

  Monday soon came and Calista was finally sitting in a consultation cell in the Infirmary, playing with the high ponytail she’d installed as her default hairstyle for every day. Instead of a Generated Doctor greeting her and explaining what happened, Calista was surprised to see a person entering her room; a coffee-skinned Earthian woman with her brown hair in a perfect bun and soft brown eyes. She wore a bodysuit similar to the other uniforms, but it was mostly white, with blue along the shoulders and abdomen and small hints of red.

  Farrah LaPointe

  Medical Science Student

  Level 510

  198 RP— Deeply Admired

  “Hi, Calista. I’m Farrah. I’m handling your case today,” she said, approaching with a kind smile.

  +2 Rel-P

  New Person: Farrah LaPointe

  Positive Acquaintance

  “Hi… I mean- hey.” Calista slouched slightly, trying to seem relaxed.

  “Your Pet sent over its med-assessment,” said Farrah, browsing on her AIDA band screen. “It looks like you’re here for reconstruction therapy? I’ll need some personal testimony to have a good report. Tell me more about that.”

  “You see, I… this is confidential, right?”

  “Completely. Not a word of what you say will leave this room.”

  +5 Rel-P

  The assurance in Farrah’s tone relaxed Calista. Feeling shame creep up her neck, she wrung her hands together and pushed herself to tell Farrah about the body mods. She explained her past as a Socializer, her mother’s forcing her to acclimate to trends, and the raid up at Cosmos that burst her ballooned arms. Farrah’s dark brows were high in the air when she was finished, ending with the pool incident, and Calista feared she’d chastise her or hand her case off to someone else.

  “You’ve gone through a lot, then,” she then said, sympathy in her voice.

  “Yeah… yeah, I have. But I’m done. I’m never body-modding again, I promise.”

  “I’ll hold you to that promise.” Farrah detached her AIDA band screen and enlarged it, showing a Calista-shaped silhouette. Red, highlighted marks were all over it. “You’re not to the point of no recovery, but it’ll be a tough road. Thinning, thickening, bone enlargement, bone reduction, skin tinting, skin marking, eye sparkling… wow. You’ve got the whole menu.”

  “You can see all of that?”

  “Now that I have access to your records,” she nodded. “If Thiki wins the election soon, they’ll be requiring med history for applicants. They should’ve done that a long time ago. You could’ve started treatment sooner.”

  “So what do I need? A few supplements?” Calista asked, a little impatiently.

  “You’ve changed your body a lot in very unnatural ways. The human body’s not meant for that. After so much, your skin cells, muscles, and bones are all weakened. With the change in diet and exercise, your body’s been acting up because it wasn’t ready for all of that. With that big impact from the water, it’s no wonder you cramped up. Your pain tolerance is way too low.”

  Calista’s heart froze. “You’re saying that… I can’t fight?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Farrah said calmly. “If we start treatment now, we can coax your body into adapting into your routine and rebuild the damaged cells. Since you’re in the Versus school, most medical treatment is covered.” She winked. “You’re a very fortunate person. Your nerve cells are mostly intact, so it’s pretty treatable. You’ll be fine.”

  “Most treatment?”

  “You may have to pay some of it out of your own digits. We’ll let you know.” She blew out her cheeks. “You’ve got your work cut out for you.” She went onto her AIDA band. “You’ll have a very strict diet and exercise routine. We’re going to alert your coaches so they don’t push you too hard in Practicum. You’ll need cell reinforcement, probiotic supplements, reconstruction therapy…”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I thought that counted as body modding?” Calista inquired.

  “Not in this case. I gotta say… I’m a senior this year, and I’ve seen a lot of things during training, but you’re a… unique case. I’ve never seen so many mods.” There was a pitying light in Farrah’s soft brown eyes.

  Calista looked down, embarrassed beyond measure. How would she ever hope to make the team if she couldn’t handle barely a month of training? How could she hope to succeed at all?

  “Look, we caught this just in time. As long as you don’t keep modding and you take the treatments, you should be okay to continue your career. Just don’t overdo training or deviate from the instructions.”

  +2 Rel-P

  Calista nodded blankly. She could say goodbye to making the team this year. There was no way her body would be ready for such a heavy competition.

  “You’re free to go,” said Farrah. “Your supplements will be available in your meal selections and your sleep capsule. If anything weird happens, report it to the Infirmary, got it?”

  When she left the Infirmary, the Break period was almost over, with fifteen minutes to spare. Her fingers played with her ‘CM’ necklace anxiously.

  Task Complete— Treatment Acquired

  Upcoming Task: Attend Self-Control class— 1 XP

  Calista groaned. Self-Control wasn’t only boring; the professor was unbelievably pretentious and annoying. She had a habit of finding some way to make the lecture all about her. Apparently, she had some sort of feud with Socializers in her younger years despite not being an actual fighter herself.

  It was quite uncomfortable to hear Professor Pustosi Nanlina constantly badmouthing the people that made up most of her family and her past. While Calista probably hated that community as much, she knew this teacher would turn on her if she ever found out her past.

  Some Self-Control teacher.

  Outside, there were a few vigils set up; anti-grav platforms had freeze shots and objects arranged in different patterns within the beam. The objects rotated slowly below the freeze shots of many different faces Calista didn’t know. Nonetheless, she bowed her head as she passed them out of respect.

  September 10th was the galaxy-wide War Day, meant to commemorate the innocent lives lost in the War of Ten centuries ago. Usually, the vigils stayed up throughout the week. In the Socializer world, it was the perfect day for the elites to pontificate about their ‘peace-loving community’ and condemn the Versus Games. Calista always had to have a special broadcast ready on the SociaLights channel to restate their ‘hatred’ for the Games, as if reassuring the fans they could trust them.

  No matter how many times she said she loathed anyone who was involved in the ‘death games’, she couldn’t erase her true feelings at all.

  As she walked through the Versus School building, her ears caught snippets from the various HARPs in the halls.

  “…Adrian Lazzo returning as the announcer for the prelims…”

  “…trade agreements are going south with the UK…”

  “…cases of BDD rising in children as young as two years old. Two.”

  Calista paused at the sound of Thiki Burna’s translated voice echoing, and she noticed some students crowding around the HARP, listening intently.

  “…what we need to do to stop this corruption from spreading throughout our planet,” she was saying. “There are too many human children suffering the aftereffects of unnecessary, radical, and painful body modifications. I’m going to do everything in my power to lower the gut-wrenching odds of 1 in 50 to zero. I may have a quarter of non-human DNA, but I understand the importance of preserving one’s natural form. It’s not settling for a ‘default’, it’s appreciating our God-given form that needs no modification or improvement. This kind of mentality is the reason we have a War Day in the first place. I’m Thiki Burna, and my victory depends on your leaders’ votes. Be the powerful public you are and make it clear that I am the right choice for Planetary Leader.”

  Her hologram faded into a news anchor— not Hennett or Macon. They were the general news outlets that discussed Earthian occurrences besides Versus-related news. At the moment, they focused on the vigils, bringing up interesting facts about the deceased and linking them to their relatives in the current century.

  “We’re glitched,” a girl said as the crowd dispersed.

  “What do you mean?” a boy asked her.

  “That Geanna glitch is going to win. I know it.”

  “Burna’s a pretty strong candidate.”

  “Yeah, she is. That’s the whole point. Those body-modding freaks aren’t ever going to let her take over. Geanna’s just too popular.”

  “They might just take her out like they did Kalley,” another boy chimed in.

  The other two groaned. “Mane, not another conspiracy theory.”

  “It’s not a conspiracy theory. I’m just stating facts. They left out a ton of evidence and used Pairen as a scapegoat. You know those Socializer weirdos did it.”

  “A little Socializer against Irenna ‘Lalaasa’ Kalley? You’re out of your mind.”

  “They have strength in numbers.”

  “They couldn’t fight a Makakian,” the girl laughed.

  The HARP changed, now showing Whitley Geanna’s face. “Speak of the devil,” the conspiracy boy said.

  “Why do they even show her here? No one likes her,” the other boy wondered.

  “So we can be aware of what they’re saying, I guess,” the girl said.

  “My beautiful babies,” Whitley began. “I’m starting this broadcast off with very joyful news.”

  “My beautiful babies,” the girl mocked. “She makes me nauseous.”

  Calista silently agreed. She always hated Whitley’s intro. She was so full of it.

  “I am very pleased to announce that my beloved country, Sweden, is officially leaving the Versus International Preliminary competition. What a wonderful thing to happen during such a somber week.”

  The statement caught the attention of many passing students, causing them to stop in their tracks and approach the HARP. Calista felt nervous at the growing crowd.

  “The President of Sweden, Hamiiin Tornquist, is here with me to discuss plans for reform and establishing a peace-centered society,” Whitley continued, the HARP now revealing the current President of Sweden. He was a Martian with curly black hair and wrinkles surrounding his black eyes.

  He was ‘President’, but Sweden had turned back into a monarchy a couple of decades ago, thanks to the large amount of Voraxians living there. They simply kept the title as a formality.

  “It is an honor to be here with you, Whitley,” President Hamiiin said, his speech translated. “We’ve reached an amazing accomplishment.”

  “That we have,” said Whitley. “I hope we can influence our neighbors to follow suit. War Day is a perfect reminder of what we must strive to avoid, not encourage. There are far too many people brainwashed with violent and anger-inducing principles…”

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” a girl said.

  “They’re always one of the top countries! What the bugs?” the conspiracy boy said.

  “Who cares? Means less competition for us,” a confident boy said.

  “That’s not the point. If a top fighting country like Sweden is pulling out, who’s next? Scotland? Japan? Us?”

  “We can’t pull out. Fistborn is too ingrained in the Games.”

  “Krigstopper was ingrained in the Games, and look!”

  “…in the process of pulling funding from Krigstopper’s combative branch and redirecting the digits to the other, non-violent departments,” President Tornquist was saying. “We’re sure that plenty more people will want to enroll now that they can focus on more useful areas of study, and once we adjust the programs to not focus on the Versus Games, we’ll have ourselves a respectable institution.”

  “That is wonderful, Hamiiin,” said Whitley. “Have you considered adding programs that aim to the betterment of society? Such as… pageantry, public speaking, interplanetary relations, among others?”

  “Pageantry? What is she on?!” someone exclaimed indignantly. “What are they going to teach them, to walk on a stage and smile?”

  “Our own President endorsed this brainless glitch. He’s glitching crazy,” said the girl next to Calista.

  “Because the VP’s a Socializer,” Calista suddenly blurted out. “They work real close together. In fact, a lot of people have been saying Pres Beklaki has a thing for VP Parrish. I mean, who wouldn’t? She’s flawless. She was Miss Milky Way back in… 2310? 2311? Don’t really remember. But she’s, like, twenty years older than my mom and she looks uber-young. So it makes sense that the Pres would go for Whitley as Planetary Leader with that in mind. Poor First Lady can’t compare to…”

  Calista felt the color drain from her face at the sight of everyone staring at her like she had two heads. “I mean… you know… I hear stuff on the Hub. You have to be knowledgeable, right?”

  “Where’d you get that she was Miss Milk-something?” someone asked her.

  “I… heard about it. It’s something… you hear.”

  “How do you know so much about her Socializer life?” A boy crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

  “Same… way Professor Pustosi knows so much,” Calista said, copying his mannerisms by crossing her arms and leaning on her leg. She tried tucking her knuckles under her biceps in an attempt to make them look stronger. “You can’t lock yourself in a bubble, right? The more you know about the other side, the more you can…” She nearly said ‘understand’, but changed her mind. “The more weaknesses you can see.”

  There was a pause. A few students shrugged with a ‘She’s got a point’ look, but there was still a lingering suspicion among them. Please believe me… Calista thought.

  +1 RP

  At least she didn’t lose any points.

  The AIDA alerted everyone to get to their next class. Calista sighed in relief, heading away herself, but lingered a bit, looking back at Whitley and the Swedish leader.

  There was already a huge change before the election even happened. Calista wasn’t sure what the Socializers were planning to get Whitley to be leader, but she knew it would widen the divide between them and fighters even more. She had to be extra careful to not reveal who she was to this crowd.