Chapter 31: Ether Experimentation

Normally Melissa didn't pay too much attention to her brother's matches, beyond keeping up with the results so that she could talk to him. She was happy for his progress, but a lot of the fighting was just too fast for her, and it wasn't her favorite thing to watch anyway. Yet now that she was traveling and couldn't talk to him easily, she found herself absorbing everything she could.

A frustrating number of Showdown events weren't put online, or were only put up on special services you had to pay for, and Melissa didn't have time for that. The last really good one she'd seen had been his fight in Siberia, which had actually been pretty exciting. After that, he seemed to have kept a lower profile to build on what he'd learned in that fight.

Sighing, Melissa closed her laptop and rolled over in her bed. Thinking about her brother would just make her loneliness worse and remind her how many days it was until they could meet.

Instead she lay there for a while, thinking about her project. Everyone was supposed to come up with something big for the conclusion of their time as a Young Lucrim Artist of America. For most, that seemed to be just assumed to be either some kind of financial Lucore, or some kind of combat gimmick.

Emphasis on the "gimmick". So many of the things Melissa had seen were basically just a known skill tweaked a tiny little bit so that it would technically count as something new. She didn't get the financial stuff, but she'd bet actual money that it was a similar thing. The point for most of her peers was to get a line on their resume, or their curriculum vitae as they insisted on calling it.

For her part, she wanted to come up with something that was actually useful. This was her best chance, since as a YLAA person she had access to experts, expensive databases, and even some free resources. She thought it was funny how some of the experts actually seemed relieved to see her. A few were corporate tools, but others just seemed glad to get an interesting problem for once and became super helpful as soon as they realized she wasn't crazy.

The problem was that she needed to come up with something that didn't just boil down to making use of her ether void. That would be unique, but it would also just be taking advantage of what she was. She could do that whenever she wanted, so she was trying to develop something cool.

It would have been much, much easier to just stand up and get her stuff, but instead Melissa spent a while stretching half-way across her floor to grab it without standing up. Eventually she pulled back her notebook and pack of a few supplies. Manifesting her ether void had become easy and she no longer burned anything, which she was sure the expensive bed and carpet thanked the heavens for. Creating an aura that took advantage of it without just replicating it, though...

According to the big fancy database of aura techniques, there were 108 classes of manifestation and 108 variations, meaning 11,664 total combinations. Melissa didn't have time to try them all, but she was methodically going through the major classes and recording her results. One at a time, she summoned up her aura, combined it with her ether void, and hoped for some sort of reaction.

A negative result. Most of them were. Melissa dutifully marked it down in her notebook and moved on to the next one. Science!

Most of the others thought she was weird, and not only because she hadn't explained about her ether void. It was actually about how seriously she took it. Even the really committed people assumed that they'd have a cushy position waiting for them after they left the YLAA. The idea of tapping into raw desperation struck them as lower class in some way.

Her work didn't come up with anything new, but Melissa got so wrapped up in it that she jumped and dropped her notebook when her phone beeped. Just a notification... a reminder about Lisa's call! She'd known she'd forget and put in the reminder for that very reason. Setting aside her work, Melissa grabbed her laptop again and got ready.

"Melissa, you look well!" As usual, Lisa smiled broadly when she saw her. She was looking pretty good herself, clearly putting in extra effort while she was part of the dating scene. Normally Lisa only wore small studs in her ears, but she had larger earrings and a silver necklace on that day.

"You wouldn't say that if you knew that I was sitting in our hotel instead of going on the trip." Melissa slumped down on the bed and sighed. "But they're touring a freaking wine cellar today. Maybe I'm just poor, but that strikes me as so ridiculously boring. I can't tell the different between a '91 Baguette and a '97 Eiffel Tower."

Lisa smiled, but also cocked her head. "I didn't think you were in France?"

"Nope, still Spain. Wine is just... very French-seeming to me."

"You might not have enjoyed the tour, but the process of creating wine is actually quite interesting. The flavor is obviously impacted by the weather and differences in the soil, but even natural lucrim drift has an impact."

"Wait, really?" Melissa's head jerked up and she stared toward the door, as if she could see to the tour. "You don't think this was actually some kind of training in disguise, do you?"

"Probably not. As far as I know, wine has never been significantly enriched with lucrim, at least not without ruining the taste. But I know a little bit about it because the natural processes are similar to those for plants that can be used for supplements."

"I should have known! Everything is supplements with you!" Melissa grinned just to make it clear that she was joking, since she didn't mind talking about that stuff. "Speaking of, did you get my package thing? What do you think? Could it work?"

Instead of answering immediately, Lisa picked up an object that proved to be the little black bottle Melissa had sent. Lisa let the pause stretch, which was super anxiety-inducing, but eventually she spoke. "As a supplement, it would function. You've come remarkably far in so little time. But even if you can produce these for no cost..."

"I can't. Come on, LisLis, just lay it on me."

"It's too niche as a supplement and if you tried to make a business off it, the business wouldn't survive." Lisa set down the bottle and gave an apologetic shrug. "You know I wouldn't buy any from you out of pity, so that means I'd get, at most, one or two bottles a year."

"I figured." Melissa groaned and slumped down on the bed, not caring that the camera would be mostly her hair. "It's really, really hard to make a living when all the big corps are... well, it'd be silly to lecture you about that. But I'm glad at least it worked."

"There is one exception. If you knew someone who needed a lot of this kind of supplement, a private deal with them could make your career. Because the pill is partially fashioned within your ether void, the number of people who can make it is extremely low. That part was really clever, if I'm coming off too critical. Find the right person and this alone could get you a job."

Though Melissa's heart leapt for a moment, it leapt straight back down as she understood. "As a dependent, you mean. I'd be completely reliant on that person needing me. They stop needing my pills and bam, I'm jobless and homeless."

"That's true, but it's really true of most people." Lisa gave her a weak smile. "Almost everyone could get fired at any moment, and they're probably not ready. People think that they're safer in normal jobs, but when the economy turns bad, it's really not. A corporation doesn't care about you, but if your employer knows you personally, they might be more generous."

"But they could also be a real creep. No, no... thanks for giving it to me straight, Lisa. I'll keep working on the idea, but I think my aura thing is more likely to be my project."

"Hey, it's up to you. If we're talking about work, wh-"

"Ugh. I know I brought it up, but I get too much talking about work here." Melissa perked back up and twisted a lock of hair around her finger with exaggerated sass. "So come on, girlfriend, dish. How are things with your boytoy lately?"

"I regret starting to tell you about my personal life every day." Lisa smiled as she spoke, but then released a heavy sigh it seemed like she'd been holding for a long time. "I don't think things are going to work out with Nathan. I liked his confidence and I thought the arrogance would wear off once we got to know each other, but instead it's getting under my skin."

Lisa went on to explain about several minor incidents, mostly looking for affirmation. Normally Melissa was not into that sort of thing, but she liked Lisa, and the older woman obviously needed someone to confide in. Melissa mostly kept herself to simple confirmations and a few questions until Lisa finally brought herself around to the conclusion she'd really known all along.

"So I'm thinking of breaking up. I thought I might do it indirectly, because I don't want a lecture... is that bad of me?"

"No way! Nathan is a douche." Melissa shook her head slowly. "I never liked him, I just didn't say anything because I wasn't going to insult your boyfriend. You should call Diego again. He was nice."

"But he wanted a family right away, and I just don't think our goals..." Lisa wiped her eyes with one hand and her gaze became clearer. "No, I can't do that. I just have to keep playing the numbers game, I guess."

"Hey, hey, don't focus on the negative. As far as I can tell, your business is doing great, right? I'm basing that entirely based on the number of abs I counted in your new website intro."

Though she laughed awkwardly, the tension at the corners of Lisa's eyes eased. "I didn't like that, but everybody says that's what draws in customers. I'm finally turning a profit, but you can't make much money just focusing on discerning clients. You need to cater to a few power addicts and jocks."

"I wasn't complaining about the abs, mind you." Melissa actually found Lisa's ongoing success a bit inspirational, though she couldn't bring herself to say that. In Melissa's family, "self-employed" meant either being a bum or running a multi-level marketing scheme. The fact that Lisa was making it on her own was nice.

"If we're back on this..." Lisa leaned forward onto one arm. "I really am curious about the sample I sent you. Did you run the tests?"

"The golden stuff? Sure." Melissa actually had that within scrabbling distance, so she grabbed the petri dish and showed it off on the camera. "It burned right up, just like the previous one. I don't know how good the color is for you, but it's all that green-gold residue."

To Melissa's surprise, Lisa's expression immediately turned serious. "You really ran that through your ether void?"

"Just like you said, yeah. Do you need me to do it again right in front of you or something?"

"I trust you, it's just..." Lisa ran both hands through her hair, suddenly very distant. "I thought I removed all the lucrim and lucrim-boosting components. There shouldn't be a reaction like that..."

"I think you did. At least as far as I could tell." Melissa shifted her head to the side, letting some concern onto her face. "Is this a problem?"

"It might be, but I can't be sure yet. What could be reacting?" Lisa stared at nothing for a while, then suddenly gathered herself. "Melissa, I'm sorry, but I need to cut this short. If there are trace components in there, that's a bad sign. They're toxic at best, or maybe... listen, I need to look into this."

There was no sense in talking to Lisa when she got that focused, which Melissa reflected was a bit like her brother. She just smiled and nodded. "Okay, I understand. Just let me know if you need any more help, okay?"

Lisa nodded and then ended the call, presumably to go investigate her theory. Melissa stared at the residue in the petri dish, puzzled by how it could have contained such shocking results. But it was way beyond her pay grade and she had a lot of other stuff to do, so she set it aside and grabbed her notebook again.

She needed to get through as many of the formulas as possible. Once she finally met her brother, she wasn't going to want to work.