Ten Zero

A knock at the door startles me awake. "Whurgl?" I mumble, my mouth moving before my brain is fully awake to provide it any words. I do my best to separate dream from reality as I untangle myself from the bedsheets. "What was the dream... blue? Maybe also the dead Grineer guy was there and... something about my wife?" Whatever logic was contained in the dream is slipping through my fingers like sand as I try to grasp on it. Still coming to terms with wakefulness, another knock echoes into the small space. "Hey... are you alive in there?" It takes a moment, but I recognize the voice as Heya, and I take a deep breath, trying to focus on my words before speaking them. "Yes, sorry, I am awake. Am-is there something wrong?" I say, my voice still feeling heavy from the remnants of sleep.

"No... nothing is wrong. But you've been asleep for 14 hours, and so I just wanted to make sure you'd be able to afford tonight's rent. I assume that you'll need to work to do that," says the voice through the thick door. "Fuck," I say in English, but the intent is clear, because Heya is quick to try to get me to relax. "It's okay!" she says while laughing, "there's no rush. We're not going to immediately rent out your room the moment your 24 hours are up. Take your time, eat some lunch, shower if you need to." I nod along to her words, even though she can't see me, but one thing she says gives me pause. "I only have 37 credits. Is that enough for lunch?" I ask. There's a moment of silence, before I hear Heya speak up. "No, unfortunately not. You'd still need about 13 credits more. Still... no rush." I listen to her footsteps make their way back down the hall, and - I assume - towards reception.

I flop back down onto the bed, resting my head on the pillow, as I feel my arms pulse from the soreness of the day prior. "Ain't no rest for the wicked, money don't grow on trees," I sing, as I look at the ceiling, trying to squeeze a few more moments of relaxation out before I start getting prepared for the day. "At least I don't need to wait 2 weeks for my first paycheck," I think, swinging my legs out over the bed and grabbing my clothes. They're an absolute mess, and noticeably pungent, but I just do my best to grin and bear it, since I don't have any other options for outfits at the moment. As I make my way downstairs, I pass into reception, giving Heya a wave to grab her attention. "Uh, do you know where I can wash my clothes? And maybe buy some more?" I ask, as she gives me a look up and down. "These are getting a bit messy." "Ai-yo, I can see that," she says, her nose scrunching as I pass by her.

"Well, for cleaning, there is a tmuaalnrdo down the way," she says, before holding her hand out in front of her. "Do you mind passing me your badge?" I hand the device to her, and it only takes her a few moments before she has a digital sketch of the path I need to take, as she assures me that it's easier than it looks. "Next hallway over, past the 'alley'. I'm pretty sure I've got it," I think, pocketing my badge. "Very neat. Thank you," I say. "And as far as buying new clothes?" Heya gives me a look of sympathy at this. "Well... there's nothing really here in the Unum herself. You'd need to go back to Cetus to find anything. Anything sold here is pretty limited and usually pretty expensive, since it needs to be flown in via the reclamators, and they're usually booked up for meat or people. It's cheaper to fly down yourself and pick something up from the market, but I know that's sort of beyond you right now." She looks apologetic as she tells me this, clearly not a fan of being the bearer of bad news. "It is okay," I say, doing my best to assuage her. "I have a friend who will be here in a few days with the rest of my clothes. This is a temporary situation, so I will just tough it out until then." "Maybe I can find a potato sack or something to wear while I'm washing my clothes," I think, the mental image bringing a smile to my face. "Well, anyways, I am off! Sooner I get out there, sooner I can pay rent!"

"Yikes," I think, looking at my handiwork from the day before. I can't help but grimace at what looks less like a clean worksite and more like a vicious animal attack. "It's like a wolf got at it," I think bemusedly, looking at the deep gouges left behind my saw. As the day prior had worn on, I had struggled to keep the depth consistent, and so some of the cuts were much deeper than needed, and some had had multiple lacerations in the same location as I needed to cut and re-cut due to not being deep enough. Some parts of the tunnel wall still contain the bits of meat that I was unable to cut free, and the space is less uniform rectangles and more awkwardly shaped polygons. As I stare at the consequences of my actions, I hear a huff behind me. I turn, and there's a man who I assume is roughly my age, possibly a few years older. "You'd think a kavat managed to get in here, the way she's torn up," says the man, a dour look on his face. The bottles strapped to his waist jingle as he adjusts his stance, and he scratches his beard, not making any eye contact with me at all. "It's either that, or you have something against the Unum. Can't say I'm a fan of either idea."

"Is he hazing me?" I think, trying and failing to get some sense of the man's personality from his squinted dark eyes. "Uh... not.... not either of them?" I say, not entirely confident on whether or not he's being serious. "I am just new. It is-it's my second day." His expression doesn't change, but he does take another step towards the wall, his cart tucked away behind him. "It'll be easier if you cut along the fibers, instead of against them." I just look at the eviscerated meat, then back to the man, not entirely clear on what it is he's referring to. "What? What fibers?" I ask. The man just sighs, reaching behind him and pulling out a knife. a spike of adrenaline shoots through me at the motion, but there's nothing about his demeanor that insinuates that he's going to hurt me. "Plus my saw's got more reach than his dinky ass knife," I think, as he makes his way within arms reach of the tunnel wall. As he does, he gestures for me to get closer, and I take a step towards him. "Oh yea, I'm within cut range now," I think, as he begins to make a small cut. "This is some awful knife safety." He finishes his small incision, and points to the inside of it with the tip of his blade.

"You see how the muscle is striped? That's the fibers. On an animal, they'd basically all go the same direction. You have that here, to some degree, but they change directions. Back and forth, in X shapes," he says, tracing out the back and forth pattern with his blade. As his knife trails down the wall, cutting the meat, it seems to snag on something, and it's there that he makes another incision. He points at it, and I lean a bit closer, my attention fully focused on the lesson before me. "Oh wild, it does a whole ass 90 degree angle change," I think, as I examine the flesh. "Why does it do that?" I ask, and the man just gives me a shrug. "Maybe she does it for structural stability. Maybe she doesn't control how it grows, only where. Maybe for easier processing. I think you'd need to ask her directly, but good luck on getting an audience," he says, and at this, he shows the first hints of a smile. "Maybe a priest'd know," he says, his smile dropping off just as fast as it came.

"Oh yea," I suddenly remember. "I gotta do that at some point. There was that whole 'hearing voices' shit that Konzu was talking about." Me and the unnamed man step away from the wall as I confirm his impromptu lesson. "So I have to make X cuts, rather than slicing straight through. The rectangle is more like a diamond." The gruff man wavers his hand back and forth. "Well, yes," he says, clearly willing to impart more knowledge, "but you'll also want to cut through the fascia as you do it." His words come with action, as he walks me through the steps needed; a cut along the fibers for some distance, then one along the connective tissue. I just watch, doing my best to soak in the free knowledge through the haze of exhaustion. "Well, but when I did that, it was tearing instead of cutting," I say, before realizing he was in the middle of a sentence. "...oh, sorry." He just gives me a look that I can't quite interpret, before holding his hand out. I briefly panic, thinking that he, in fact, is expecting recompense for his lesson, before I realize that he just wants me to hand over my saw. I do so, and he takes a moment to look at it. "Yea, I see the problem. So, what you're going to want to do in the short term..."

Every part of me is somehow in even more pain than the day prior. "Muscles I didn't even know I had are fuckin' sore," I think grumpily, as I tug my cart through the tunnel. Thankfully my suffering serves a purpose, as I have a cart half full of flesh, and this time the cuts are recognizably from the Unum and not just a vague pile of meat. As well, the shift was closer to 9 hours than 10, and both the cleaner cuts and time save were due to the advice I had been receiving from the man, whose name I learned was Jae. While I had constantly stopped to ask for his advice, and he never appeared to be particularity enthused at the idea of needing to handhold me through the process, he never once told me to leave him alone, and had always made sure that I understood the knowledge he was trying to impart, before he went off back to his corner of the tunnel. It turned out that we were effectively tunnel buddies, although I'm not sure if he had always been there or if he simply moved closer to avoid having to walk back and forth. In any case, our day is finally finished, and I'm excited to head back home to get another 14 hours of sleep.

As I reach the exit of the tunnel, I see that Jae is actually stood just off to the side of it, securing his Burj Kahlifa of tower flesh with ropes and hooks. "Holy crap," I think, as I watch him test the stability of his handiwork. "He had time to teach me and fill his cart? How fast could he've been done if he hadn't needed to stop every ten minutes to walk me through Skinning 101?" "Well," I say, as I approach the man. "I guess it's time for me to go sell this for like... a bronze." I give him my best cheeky grin, but he just looks at me, his face severe. "You're being scammed," he says, in perfect monotone. "Ah! No! I am-I'm joking! Sort of. It's is... uhh, it is a city program... thing," I say, stumbling over my words, his eyes locked on my face. "Not.. not literally a bronze. I just, I do not have a seller. The city buys it from me. It's a bit of a rip off, but..." The sentence trails off, and I just hit him with one of those 'it is what it is' shrugs. Jae's face softens slightly, and he nods his head. "Good program. Helps get your feet under you." I nod back, a smile growing across my face. "Yea, they are really nice. I had not even thought of actually selling the meat. Had I not talked to them yesterday, I would have just been stuck with 50 pounds of flesh."

"There was no program like that when I started," he says, as he and I begin making our way towards the lift. "Took me a while, nearly half a decade, but I managed to build up a network. Now I sell straight at the market in Cetus, no middle man," he says, his eyes darting between me and his cart as we keep pace. "Wow," I say, tugging on my own cart. "I do not know if I will be around that long. I am not planning on staying here for years. Although... I do not actually know what the plan is, as far as getting off planet. I... should probably look that up..." I trail off, as I get lost in my own thoughts, and Jae seems comfortable in the silence, and it's a few minutes before we both make our way into the elevator room proper. As I walk towards the elevator, Jae reaches out and grabs on to my upper arm, pulling me both physically and mentally back towards him. "How much would you earn?" he asks, and I just give him a shrug. "I do not actually know. Yesterday I was able to just about cover a day of rent, plus a bit. Maybe... 3 and a half bronze? For roughly the same amount? Maybe less. My cuts were really bad," I say, doing my best to recollect the day prior. Jae takes his hand off my arm, but I can see there's still something on his mind, and so I give him a moment to formulate his thoughts.

"I'd be willing to buy this off you for a stack," he says, with no fanfare. "Wait, how much is a stack again?" I wonder. "Five bronze?" I ask, as confirmation of the quick math. "If that's right, that's nearly twice what I made yesterday!" Jae just gives me a short nod. "Uh. I mean... yes! Sure!" I say excitedly, before quickly realizing an issue. "But... also... I need cash today, for room and food and... maybe some soap. Can you do that?" There's a moment of silence, as Jae looks at me and through me, before speaking up. "Today, I can. If you'd like to keep selling to me, I couldn't do it every day, but I'm willing to front you, just to help keep a roof over your head for now," he says, nodding to himself as he does. "Well, then, we have a deal!" I say, sticking my hand out for a handshake. Instead, Jae reaches into his pocket, pulling out a little flag. "Just leave your cart here," he says, reaching over to mark both his and my cart on the handles. "I have a guy." After a quick once over of the carts, he walks over and on to the lift, me trailing only a few steps behind him. He presses his badge into the elevator control, and a thought briefly crosses my mind as we teleport up onto some unknown floor.

"What are the odds that he's gunna try to ice me?" I think, as I follow him out into an unrecognized hallway. "I mean, insane play if true, since I am literally equipped with a weapon. Also also, he just spent the whole day teaching me how to harvest, which would be a crazy thing to do if you were planning on mercing someone in a dark alley to steal their flesh. ...tower flesh. Whatever." Still, I can't help but feel slightly apprehensive as we approach a higher end (but still somewhat middling) hotel. "Wait here," he says, and even though I was already planning to, I feel relief that he and I are of the same mind. It's only a few minutes later that he returns, and he holds out 5 bronze, stacked together. "Very sci-fi," I think, as I look at the stack of credits, 5 lights adorning the top. "If that's everything..." he says, and I look up at him with a huge grin on my face. "Wanna get a drink?" Instead of a response, he just calmly turns back into the building, and I feel the smile slip off my face. "'Bro it's fine the worst she can do is say no'," I think, my attention getting pulled back down to the magnetic money.

I spend a moment pulling the top bronze off the stack, watching as the lights jump down a level as I do, and dropping from five lights to four, then letting the magnets snap them back together in to place. I'm moments from turning and trying to find my way back to my own hotel, when I hear the door in front of me open. I can't help but furrow my brows at Jae, as he stands there, with no expression on his face. "I had to get more money," he says, in his deep rumbling monotone. I just roll my eyes at him, saying, "Well, I hope you know where to get drinks around here." He gives me a short nod, along with an "I do," before passing by me and heading off down the hall. I trail behind him, fiddling with the magnetic money in my pocket, and it's only a few minutes before we find ourselves in front of a tucked away bar with a sign designating it as The Drop. "Oh I bet Aley loves this place," I think, as we make our way in.

The bar itself feels almost like a modern dive bar; the lights are dim in the same way, the wear and tear of a million footsteps roughing up the texture of the floor, and while there's no pool tables, there are groups of guys playing various games with dice and cards. We head towards the bar itself, dropping ourselves into two adjacent stools, Jae waving his hand to get the bartenders attention. "Forest Poison for me," he says, and I follow up with a mowje. As the bartender leaves, I turn my full body towards Jae. "So," I say, pulling his focus from the bartender. "What's your deal?" Jae just stares at me, a questioning look in his eye. "My deal?" I nod while looking at him. "Yes, your deal. You are very stoic, but also, you just helped me for no reason." He just shrugs. "I think you'll be a good investment. Your cuts were a mess yesterday, but you worked for nearly 11 hours. You can train skill, you can't train dedication." He reaches over to take a sip from our recently arrived drinks, his an almost neon green liquid in a seafoam blue glass. I take a pull from mine, before following up.

"So, that is it? Just... good business sense?" I ask, an eyebrow raised. He nods. "Just wanted to grab you before someone else did." My eyes don't leave his, but every reaction of his is subtle, dulled. I'm entirely unable to determine anything from his body language or expression, and so I'm forced to just take him at his word. "And yet... maybe I've got main character syndrome but it just feels too random of a pick to me. Not that I'm planning on looking a gift horse in the mouth, but still," I think. "Well. Thanks. I would have been selling to the city for a while if you had not shown up. Cheers?" I say, raising my mug. He raises his glass, to mine, and they clink. "To the Unum!" Jae exclaims, with more energy than I've seen all day. "May her bounty never run out!"

As I lay in bed, I can't help but ruminate on the experience with the man. "He's an odd one, for sure, but I dunno... I think his heart's in the right place. I mean, don't get me wrong, he needs a fuckin' run through a rock tumbler to really polish him up, but prickliness aside...," I think, as I feel my body slowly start to drift off. As I do though, there's...

something.

A spike of adrenaline is driven into my muscles, and I take a huge gasp of air, banishing all sleepiness from my mind. "What the fuck?" I think as I sit up, my eyes darting around in the gloom of the room. I can see every corner of the space, and while it's clear that I'm completely alone, for the briefest of moments it was as though I could feel a... presence... standing in the tiny space near the foot of my bed. I glare at the patch of air, but I see, hear, and feel nothing. "Ya'll tryna be on Worldstar? I got my dollar store camera... ON," I quote in English, doing my best to ground myself. After the moment of silence, I let out a groan, my body flopping back onto the bed. "Fuck the hat man," I think, staring at the ceiling, feeling the last dregs of adrenaline drain from my system. "I've got work tomorrow, so unless you're paying rent, please kindly bug off."

It takes me quite a while before I manage to fall asleep.