Chapter Twenty-One - Eternal Optimism and Petty Spite


    Chapter Twenty-One - Eternal Optimism and Petty Spite


    As climate change continues to grow in scale and scope, the world will continue to become less hospitable to humankind. We should have addressed this fifty years ago, and its too damned late to do anything about it now, but that doesnt mean that we will just keel over and die without putting up a fight.


    Its why we seeded clouds across the entire planet. Its why we live in more and more cities with enclosed environments. The world might kill us, but that doesnt mean that well go out so easily. No, our death will be slow and painful.


    --Professor U. Shuda Listened, Climate I-Told-You-So Expert, 2025


    ***


    A lot of my plans hinge on the fabricator, I said as I slowly flew up and through New Montreals skyline.


    Thats understandable. Its one of your largest purchases, and one thats primarily designed to allow a Vanguard to outfit themselves and produce an abundance of resources. It would be strange not to place it at the centre of your plans.


    Does every samurai get something like that? I asked.


    One in eight Vanguard will branch out into some sort of production system. Most of these focus on making tools and consumables that they commonly use. As they progress, most Vanguard will also turn these production systems towards larger goals.


    So, like what Im doing?


    Your actions have precedents. Its only logical that a Vanguard capable of producing goods should produce goods, and seeing as how Vanguard are chosen from among people that wish to help the world, it again only makes sense that they would use their abilities to provide goods and equipment to the wider world.


    I continued to think as I flew towards home. As I rose over the top of the majority of the towers around me, I was able to make out my place out in the distance. The weather was nice out, for once, a bit of sun coming out from between grey clouds. So, if theres a bunch of samurai making shit, whys the world still a shithole? I asked.


    Are they things youre planning to make enough to improve the world as a whole, or are they just enough to help those you want to help right now? As a Vanguard grows in abilities, points, and power, the scope of the help they can provide grows as well, though this growth is more linear than you might expect. The world is a better place for them, its likely that you just take a lot of the growth they provided for granted.


    Was that it? It made some sense, I supposed. Different samurai would care about different stuff. If I gave Gomorrah unlimited creation abilities, I bet shed invest in giving everyone a flamethrower, or she might invest in helping the nuns or whatever that she was used to working with. That probably would help the world in a small way.


    Someone like Grasshopper would probably invest a lot of time and effort into making educational stuff better, which would also help, in its own way. Hell, I was pretty sure she was already investing a lot of time and effort into doing that. I think she had a whole set of interactive childrens books or whatever being made.


    Well, whatever, I decided. Id use mine to make the shit I cared about better. For now, with just the one, it wasnt like I could change the entire damned world. Id start with what I could do on the scale I was used to working on, and if things didnt go to shit, Id see about expanding.


    The printer at home probably had one hell of a backlog already, so wed have to see about improving it, or getting a second one.


    Oh, is this a shopping date, or just normal boring shopping? Lucy asked.


    I grinned. Its whatever you want to make of it, I said.


    Lucy bounced up to the tips of her feet and gave my cheek a peck. Ill get changed, she said before running back in.


    I walked back over to the bike, then leaned up against it. Im gonna need a helmet for Lucy, I said.


    Perhaps I should have encouraged you to purchase a fully-enclosed vehicle. In any case, an inexpensive enclosed helmet should only come up to a few points.


    When Lucy walked out--now wearing a skirt and an old blouse and my old jacket--I tossed her a brand new helmet. It was just a plain dark thing with a glass front... and a pair of protrusions on the top that looked suspiciously ear-like.


    Thanks! Lucy said before fitting the helmet on. So, where are we going?


    I dont know, where do you want to go? I asked.


    Nowhere fancy, she said. Maybe one of those cool markets, where people make their own shit?


    I nodded along, then slid a leg over the seat of my bike. I scooted forward, giving Lucy some space to squeeze in before me while I locked in our destination. Myalis quietly helped me find a spot. It wasn''t exactly close, but being able to fly over the city made the commute easy. Plus I got to enjoy Lucy pressing herself into my back the entire time.


    We kicked off and took to the air, then I received a call from Lucy. You know, you could just shout, I said as I answered it.


    And ruin my voice so early in the day? she asked. I want to save all the screaming for later.


    I grinned and shook my head. Lucy was being very... Lucy today. She started chatting while we continued to move across the city, talking about the progress some of the kittens had been doing and some of the long-distance work shed taken on.


    It mostly had to do with the kittens association wed left in Burlington. They were still reaching out to Lucy for help, and she was spending an hour or so a day just organising things and writing nasty emails to people she found incompetent.


    I enjoyed just listening to her rant about whatever came to mind. Lucys eternal optimism was balanced by a deep and powerful level of spite and pettiness that she was always willing to use on the things that annoyed her.


    It was a nice way to cool down after a long days work.


    ***