Chapter 6: Melissa and the Vicious Dinosaur Attack

Aside from their regular texting, Melissa always did video calls. She didn't like email and she'd only sent him a physical letter once as a prank. So Rick quickly moved his laptop to a better position, tugged the cover off the camera, and clicked to accept the call.

"Brother!" Melissa beamed and raised both arms, then lunged forward. Rick got a close-up of her neck, which confused him until he realized that she was hugging her laptop. "Brother... you've become very plastic and rectangular."

"It's the new Plastic Fist technique I've been training." Rick waited for her to back up and they both just grinned at each other for a while. Given how busy Melissa was, their chats didn't come as often as they'd like, so they were always a relief. Maybe it was his imagination, but he thought Melissa looked a little healthier every time he saw her. She was still thin, just much less so than when her ether void was consuming her.

Of course, he couldn't bring that up or she would aggressively retaliate with jokes about how she was getting fat. Occasionally he wondered if they were actually a bit serious, but he had decided that Melissa was an adult and could handle herself. He didn't like being so far apart and hoped that wherever they went in life, they could live in closer proximity to one another.

"So you're joining the Showdown?" Melissa finally broke the grin session, though she still smiled broadly. "That's great, bro. I'm not just being supportive. There are people in the YLAA who only wish they could get into the Showdown."

"Really?" Rick raised both eyebrows despite himself. "You're not messing with me?"

"Not at all. Now, I'm not saying everybody idolizes it. The real rich people, the ones from the crazy rich families, seem to think it's just stupid bread and circuses for the masses. And not so many people want to do it as a long term career. But a lot of them really, really want it on their resumes."

"Huh. I sort of got that sense from how the seals work, but I hadn't expected that."

"If you can actually get enough of those, it'd be a big deal." Melissa sat back and rolled her eyes. "Everything is about padding your resume here. The thing is, seals from the Showdown are one thing that Mommy and Daddy can't buy or cheat their way into. I mean, they can give their kids huge Birthright Cores, but even those aren't necessarily enough. Showdown events require too much skill."

Perversely, her encouragement made him more apprehensive about the upcoming event, so Rick tried to refocus on her. "I thought you said there weren't a lot of Birthright Cores around."

"That's true, it's just... I guess I never explained that part. There are some normal asshole Birthrighters here, sure, but not as many as I expected. A lot of them who are motivated enough to join the YLAA won't get their parents' core until they earn it through hard work. Well, relatively. They have trust funds they call their 'savings' and they've been drinking philosopher's elixir since they were babies, but their parents make them work to establish a foundation first."

"I hear that's the better way to do it. Implanting a Birthright Core in an unprepared lucrima soul grants power, but it tends to be a crude connection."

"Look at us, casually talking about Birthrighters like this." Melissa smiled softly and began playing with something on her desk, outside his vision. "They tell us a lot of nonsense about our futures being bright, but sometimes I actually believe it."

"So you're fully supportive of me participating?" Rick asked. He could assume as much, yet he felt strangely uncertain without his sister's explicit approval.

"Absolutely. At least give it a try. If you get in at all, you should be able to earn a bit of money. And once you've finished spending most of it on hookers and blow, there will be enough for you to buy new socks or something."

"I was actually doing some research on perpetual souls lately. It takes a lot of money, but it's not impossible."

"Really?" Melissa sat up straighter and frowned at him. "There's a lot of talk about perpetual souls here, but people are saying you need like five million lucrim minimum to do that. Not that I don't believe in your success, bro, but..."

Rick shook his head. "That's what it would take to fund the types of lifestyles they're used to, but we don't need nearly so much. If you just want to buy socks, you can do it for a lot less. I doubt I'd be good enough at the Showdown to earn it all, but the nice thing is that even getting a little closer is helpful."

"Oh, definitely go for it. Maybe I should put all my extra money toward something like that. Like you said, no matter what I do, it'd probably help a bit."

"You have extra money?"

"Did I not mention that? They give us a stipend every week... hee, it's actually a bit like an allowance, though they're just a wee bit bigger than allowances in our family. Actually, the YLAA does feel like an extended childhood in a lot of ways... but I'm getting off topic." Melissa shook her head and tapped something off-camera. "My extra money just keeps racking up on my debit card here. They're paying in dollars, not lucrim, but it's still worth something."

"That's cool. Yeah, definitely keep saving until you figure out how to invest it. From what you've said, they support your growth pretty well there, but you still might need it for an emergency."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll get me wrapped up in something soon enough." Melissa grinned at him, but then she looked over the top of her computer and the smile faded. "Hmm? Rick just a sec... what's that?"

"Is something wrong?" He found himself shifting his head to try to look around the side, even though it was useless. Though he couldn't hear anyone, Melissa listened for a while, her eyes widening.

"That's crazy, it can't... Rick, I need to... oh my god, dinosaurs are attacking!" A toy Tyrannosaurus Rex abruptly appeared just in front of the camera and began making chomping movements in her direction. "It's eating my face! It's eating my fa - wait, the angle is wrong - oh god, it's eating my face!"

"I do not recommend having your face eaten by dinosaurs," Rick advised sagely.

Melissa showed him the dinosaur toy, which she'd bought for a few bucks on a whim. Not exactly the kind of splurge her peers in the YLAA might do, but he felt a deep sense of relief that she could do something so carefree without worrying about whether it would prevent them from eating.

From there, they caught up on everything in their lives. What Melissa had said about the YLAA being an extended childhood really did seem accurate. It was supposedly for high achievers, but it was also a heavily curated experience in which they had dorms, cafeterias, and all the resources they needed simply handed to them. Even the experiments sounded like science classes and the journeys sounded like field trips. But Melissa could take all of those and use them to her advantage for more than her resume.

Nearly two hours later, and far too soon, they finally stopped chatting. Rick pretended to pat the webcam's head and they said their farewells before Melissa signed off, leaving him alone in his cabin again.

Sometimes after a conversation with his sister he was left in a strange depression. That usually led to him training while in a bad mood, which technically wasn't harmful but poisoned his mindset. To try to break the cycle, Rick headed straight out. He'd worked enough for the week, so he might as well take some time off.

Time for another visit to the old library.