high achiever, don't you see? baby, nothing comes for free

[skepticgirl_1]

I was going a little out of my mind with ideas and stories and no real outlet for them. So when the posting popped up that someone was asking for writers to work on a new independent publication, I seized on the opportunity. Who knew? Maybe it would end up as a paying job and I could get myself out of the home. I was being picky on that front, I knew, but there were so many choices that I was being denied, just by being in Darrow itself, that I wanted what power I did have to be exercised exactly how I wanted it to be. No burger slinging jobs for me, only something I loved.

There was a light rain drizzling down as I made my way to the coffee shop, so my hair was a bit frizzed despite the now damp hoodie I had on over my shirt. At least my trusty boots were made for walking in the rain and my messenger bag, carrying vital notebooks, was waterproof.

I scanned the crowd of coffee and sugar addicts that had been drawn to the warmth and caffeine through the rain. There in the back I saw an Asian woman surrounded by books and papers. Yup, that pretty much matched the description plus the image I had in my mind. I don't think I would trust any reporter who didn't have a full desk.

I grabbed myself a double chocolate mocha with whipped cream to drown out the taste of coffee, which I was still getting used to, and headed over to the table.

"Hi?" I said. "Cindy?"

Comments

[skepticgirl_1]

I chuckled and shook my head. "Honestly, I wasn't really into it for the game play," I admitted. "I have a friend who was being bullied-- Well, back up. A company was doing experiments on high school kids through the game, testing some new tech to make this kind of hive mind? So this group of kids wanted my friend to become one of them. Or, one with them. So we had to fight them in the game and out of it, to challenge them. And then, after that all settled, I used it to talk to one of my friends who lived far away." I fought back the beginnings of a blush that wanted to pinken my cheeks. "It was a hologram set up, so it was more realistic, like talking face to face, than texting or talking on the phone."

I felt a pang again, of disappointment, of honest anger, at the fact that the city's controller(s) had taken me from my world just as I was about to meet SmallvilleGuy, face to face. It wasn't fair that that very second had to be the one when my life changed.

I cleared my throat and shook my head slightly, moving on from the memory. "But, anyway... Yeah, that sounds a little familiar. And also very creepy and heartless, I agree. But it makes it kind of easier to realize where to focus your attack. Why bother with taking out the heads? You know they're not the threat. Just distract them while you go for the throat. Or, er, body. I mean, if we're taking this kind of literally, which people seem to do. So what's their M.O.?"

[swingatshadows]

"Wow. That sounds... incredibly familiar. Did you hear about the whole Dremblydrop thing that went on in Darrow? Hive mind driven by a game — albeit a physical, athletic game rather than a video game. Video game sounds even scarier, considering how much time you can sink in those things," Cindy said, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head at the thought. If Dremblydrop was able to get people into such a fervor, Cindy could only imagine what a game would do to a malleable mind.

It made her wonder if there was something similar that could be dropped into the government, which seemed even more dangerous than rallying up a mostly younger set of kids.

"But yes, anyway, as for Hydra," Cindy went on, breathing a deep sigh and rolling her eyes. "It's the most clichéd story in the book. World domination. Turns out that indeed, sometimes people just want power and they don't care what it takes to get it. And it ends up spawning a lot more creativity than you'd necessarily expect."

[skepticgirl_1]

I shook my head, eyes widening slightly because I hadn't heard about this. I had heard about Dremblydrop, in passing, but I had never been a sports person and just the name had turned me off the idea. At least baseball and basketball sounded relatively normal; dremblydrop sounded like the name of a talking toddler toy designed to drive parents crazy. Now I wish I had paid more attention to the sport.

Then again, given the way everything worked in Darrow, someone would have happily told me all the rules and the history and the current rivalries, but they wouldn't ever mention the mind control aspect. Because this entire city's native inhabitants were mind controlled, in my book.

"World domination?" I echoed, skeptical. "But how can you dominate the world when you believe that the world consists of one city? Or-- Do you mean Hydra's from outside Darrow? And it came here?"

[swingatshadows]

"The whole believing in only the existence of a single city's pretty murky to begin with," Cindy pointed out with a slight wave of her hand. "I would say it's more... avoidance of the topic than anything else. You've been to some of the neighborhoods that closely resemble immigrant neighborhoods in outside worlds, right? Where much of the population don't seem to be native English speakers, and so forth. You can tell that there's culture coming in from elsewhere, and sometimes you'll even catch a native talking about 'the old country,' they just can't seem to be bothered with the details of it."

It really was something to head down to Darrow's tiny equivalent of Koreatown, little more than a block or two, and feel practically like she'd been transported to her grandparents' social circles. Except no one could actually talk about specific towns or cities. So hard to find a good doenjang jjigae, she could remember one old woman lamenting.

But any mention of Seoul or Busan was met with blank stares.

"Anyway, there is a Hydra in my world, probably others. Can't say for sure if it's those same folks who started it here, or if Darrow was inspired to come up with a good knock-off, or what," she added. "Maybe it's a mix of both, with native Darrowians being recruited by someone on the outside. But the methods seem similar enough to the Hydra I knew."