02: The Meeting

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

What do you think of when you have thought of everything you thought you could ever think of? Usually, I start to imagine movies in my head. I make up stories of epic battles fought in a reality separate from my own, remixing the many movies I’ve watched during my assignments. For some reason though, for the entire 15 hour ride, all I could think about was Kaliya and what kind of person she might be. I knew nothing about her, nothing more than her age and name, but I feel like that’s all I needed to know to know that she’s something special. I felt myself growing excited for what might be in store for both of us during our time together. This train ride, I made stories of what kind of life Kaliya is meant to live and how I’ll be the one to make it happen. What if she’s a world known celebrity or a super rich blogger? One of my friends had someone like that and the stories they had were way more interesting than anything John ever had happen! That’s disrespectful of the dead to say so I fully apologize for that last thought.
What kind of person is Kaliya? What does she look like? What does she like and dislike? What has she done in the last 19 years of her life and why was I assigned to her? Questions kept popping up in my head and I continuously imagined every possible outcome. I’ve never been this excited for an assignment before, I wonder why this one has caught my attention. It might be the fact her name is Kaliya.
Kaliya.
There is a lot of power in a name, you know. The more unique the name, the better! When someone is named someone that has a lot of power they always end up becoming a very interesting person and that’s someone I’m excited to be watching over. —
Many, many daydreams later, we arrived in the Watcher District. I wish the train had been just a little bit longer, maybe 16 hours, then I might've finished my dream. The rhythmic clanging of the train as it slowed down echoed throughout the cab, silencing everyone. I closed my eyes, hearing the symphony of different sounds coming together and creating images with my head that bobbed and swayed with every click and bang. The air feels different in the Watcher District, heavier, like nobody wants to talk about something. Last time I was here, the accommodation building I had been assigned before was a 30 minute walk away from the office and train station. This time thankfully, accommodation building I've been assigned are close by the train station, and right across the street from my office buildling, so I can go straight to my apartment, then the office in time to clock in before midnight. The train was older than me, and extremely rickety, when it came to a complete stop I had to hold myself up so that I didn’t give myself a concussion on my own suitcase. Looks like the rest of the passengers suffered the same fate as a couple of moans broke out around the cabin.
The train doors buzzed as they creaked open and the loud ambiance of the city outside flowed inside the train car and the smell of the district met my nose. I’m so happy to be back. Getting off the train is a whole other mess though, as now I had no Aeter to help carry my three suitcases and I only have two arms. It’s time like this I wish for reality bending powers.. Please, Vitrum.. Give them to me!
"..."
He's not listening to me.
Unfortunately, I’m not loved enough to have such powers bestowed upon me, probably won’t ever be. So now I’m stuck lugging around one suitcase on each arm and the last suitcase I’m desperately trying to drag with my tail.
Making my way through the thick crowd of people, I had to keep on stepping on my tip-toes to see if I was still heading in the right direction. The accommodation building I had been assigned this time around was quite flashy, reading "THREE SOULS", in bright fluorescent lights. At a certain point, I stopped checking if I was going in the right direction and followed the fluorescent glow on people's faces get stronger before I was nearly in front of the buildling.
I feel like I might snap.
It's just up ahead..
Soon enough, and thankfully before my tail snapped, I arrived in front of Three Souls. As luck would have it, I have to go up 5 floors and the elevator is down. I’ll spare you the details but getting up to my room left behind a horror scene. I may have had to scratch a few walls out of frustration. Why did I pack my suitcases to be this heavy every single time? How was Aeter able to carry two of them without any help on my end? He really is something else.. but enough daydreaming because now I really should be getting to work. I used my ID to get into my room and threw each of the suitcases inside, grabbed my bag and locked up before running to the office that was across the street.
I can’t contain my excitement for meeting Kaliya. I feel like I have so much energy I keep bouncing on the way to the office. We are so close to finally coming face-to-face, or rather face-to-nothing, not like it matters either way. I’m about to become one of the most important parts of her life and she’s not even going to know. As a watcher, we are meant to watch over our assignment, given to us by the Omnipotens Tribus, until the day they day, ensuring they follow the path of fate that’s predetermined for them. You could call us their guardian demons, if you want. Someone might make fun of you if you do, though. —
The workbench we're meant to sit at all shift has one of the strangest designs, I wonder what kind of nutjob came up with it. The chair itself is curved and leans backwards, you almost had to crawl into it to sit on it. Wrapped around the chair is a circular cabinet with many drawers for whatever you decide to put in them, they also come with a manual describing the job duties and the Fate Path of your assignment. Lifted in the air above the chair is a huge monitor, about 5 feet across if I had to guess, that lowers once you're in the seat. A lot of the chairs were produced when blackest black was trending so the chair in this office happened to be that black, a black so black the different parts of the chair melded into one, becoming one giant form. Everything connected seemlessly, as if the chair was brought into existence as is. To someone who has never seen it before, they might think it's a monster at first glace, with it's almost organic structure. It had been a while since I had seen it in so long, which is why when I entered the room, I jumped so high when I walked in, I dropped all my things on the ground.
Times like these, I'm incredibly thankful I'm the one doing the watching.
After picking up all of my things while trying to calm my heart, I made myself over to the culpit of my increased heartrate, that supid chair, and opened one of the cabinets to put my bag inside.
"Ahhh..." I sighed and slumped against the chair. "Finally."
The trip here had been boring as usual and I found myself more exhausted than I thought I'd be. Oh wait, I haven't slept in a bed in over a day. Another sigh. Nothing I can do about it now, I need to clock in before midnight and I'm penalized on the first day of this assignment.
I reached inside of one of the other cabinets to feel around for what I hope my friend left for me.. Somewhere in here..
"Ah!" My hand came across something cold and soft, cylinderical in shape. Exactly what I was looking for. I pulled it out and immedietely opened and took a sip. "Juniper!!" The energy drink Juniper had left for me this time was citrus flavored, my favorite. It's embarrassing how she more prepared for my arrival than I was but it doesn't matter. With this, I will pull my first all nighter of many for this assignment. My heart was beating so hard I thought it might jump out of my chest.
Energy drink in hand, I climbed into the chair, right foot up first, and sat down, triggering the chair to lower the monitor to level that I could interact with it. Usually the chair would make such a loud noise when this happened but this time it was quiet, it looks like they polished them while I was gone. Or maybe gave them an upgrade?
The monitor automatically turned on, signalling for me to place my finger on the fingerprint scanner. So this process has become automatic too? It looks like there's been a lot of changes made since I've been gone..
Hmm, hmm.....hmmmmmmm....., electricity buzzed around the room as the computer painted the room in a neon green, then a pale blue.
"Hmm...Hello, Vitula!" A voice emitted from the computer, dulling out any of the soft hums echoeing from before. "Welcome to your third assignment!" I put my feet up on the cabinet desk and took a sip of my drink. The voice spoke slow and in a rhythmic fashion, different from how it's been before, obviously created using artifical intellegence, what they didn't have the means to have a real demon record this? "Congratulations! During your third assignment, your duties and responsibilities have been raised to a level relevant to your experience. Be sure to check the handbook if you have any questions about any of the new duties.
Your new assignment is Kaliya Copperfield. Basic peliminary research done on your assignment shows that Kaliya is 19 earth years old. Kaliya has one female guardian and one male guardian and one male guardian of the 40-45 age range. Kaliya lives at home with previously stated guardians.
Kaliya’s fate path has been predetermined by the Omnipotens Tribus. Kaliya’s fate path is that of Belzebub, who is represented by envy. Kaliya is destined to graduate with a masters in biology from Cornell University, after which Kaliya will meet designated soulmatch at age range 18-25. After connecting with soulmatch, Kaliya will continue to advance forward career wise towards eventually working on a team to develop public health campaigns at age 35. Kaliya will get married at 33 to soulmatch and have 2 children, 6 years apart, starting 2 years into marriage. Kaliya will lose her job due to budget cuts at age 40. Kaliya will find work as a server at a local seafood restaurant while more of the financial burden is taken on by soulmatch. Soulmatch will grow tired of helping and wants a new life, will leave Kaliya to raise children on her own at age 50. The guardians of Kaliya will die when Kaliya is in the 50-55 age range. Kaliya will lose a child to a car accident, then be diagnosed with PTSD and depression at age 62. Kaliya will commit suicide via SIG Sauer P320 at age 65.
A detailed explanation of the fate path of Belzebub and how it can be a guide to watching your assignment can be found in the booklet to the right of your watcher station.
As of the 5th of Decem, your duties include the following: Late Career Schooling Along with already established duties: family, pets, early career, and death."
I had finished my drink by the time the computer finished its speech, god I feel like I aged a year.
What a sad story.. I wonder what some of these people did in past lives to get a fate like this.. Also, fate path of Belzebub, huh? I've not had an assignment with that yet, I felt like I might jump out of the chair from how excited I was. Well, I still had to clock in and I didn't have time to read up on it just yet.
Using my hand, I brushed the air to the left of my head to my heart, and the monitor began to load up.
Time to meet Kaliya Copperfield. —
I was easily able to tell, or rather, it was easy to guess who Kaliya was.
Unless Kaliya had been a body builder her entire life, there's no way she could have that body.
Maybe she had some sort of disease which caused her to grow incredibly large and have huge muscles? What's she doing becoming a biologist then?
Let's say, the one I hoped to be Kaliya, was currently being strattled by a man that looked about twice her size on a bed about his size, and had long blonde hair that poke out beneath every part of her body. The man on top of her looked like he might be cannibalizing her face from the angle I was looking at her.
"Seriously?!" I moved the Eye using my hands so that I was no longer looking at this dubious scene and instead examined the rest of her room. I can't believe I busted my ass getting her and she was fooling around, not that she had any idea. Shame, I was excited to meet her just now. I suppose I can wait..
Her room was a little messy, things were laying here and there, but you could tell she knew where everything was. There were a few notebooks scattered on the floor and various pieces of papers, probably from her college classes, but I didn't bother going any closer to read them.
"Ah...." A soft female's voice echoed in the office.
Raising my right hand and pushing it towards the screen, I muted the transmission. Those are her first words to her guardian demon? I felt the heat rise to my cheeks after using that euphemism, though it was only in my head. Regardless, how shameless and what bad timing..
Anyways, back to examining the floor of my assignment. Oh, that was really it, there was nothing else on her floor. It looks like she kept her room is a pretty clean condition. Thank god, the last guy I had was a slob, it was almost disgusting looking after him.
I became to use my hands to look around the room with Eye, looking all around Kaliya's surprisingly bland room and the profane couple on the bed's act shook the room so bed the closet started to shake.
Wait, that's not right, what was that?
The closet next to the bed was shaking but they're not touching each other, so why was the closet shaking?
Using the Eye, I went closer to the closet to take a peek and see what was inside and I don't know why I ever try and have hope anymore.
Inside the closet, I could see dozens of decorations that were shoved to fit inside this tiny closet alongside piles of trash. Why not just throw the trash out if you were going to pick it up and put it in the closet?! Even though it shook, it looked like she rigged a system to keep it locked, because it refused to open. Are you an engineer?
"You cleaned up for this guy?!" Baffled by her choices, I swung the Eye over to get a good look at his face, as best I could trying to avoid the fact he was practically eating Kaliya's face off, and pretty badly too. His face.. Isn't he kind of old? No, he's seriously old. This guy is definitely older than her, at least.. The way his features were on his face, the slight wrinkles by his eyes, I'm no pro with humans and their ages but even if you look at the difference in skin types between the two of them.. This guy is really old! Not to mention that he's kind of ugly, his nose didn't really match his face and his eyebrows were monsterous. What is she doing cleaning up for some creep like this?
The man got up from Kaliya and started talking to her and I was finally able to get a good look at Kaliya's face. Her blonde hair framed her face beautifully, creating adornments on her cheeks, that I could tell now is dyed after seeing her brown roots. She had a few freckles on each of her cheeks and huge brown eyes that looked up directly at the man as he spoke to her. What was he saying? I couldn't make that out?
I quickly unmuted it. Stupid.
"-ou next time. I had so much fun." The man's voice was deep, and made me freeze in place for a moment. There was something underneath the feigned kindness that made me want to vomit just hearing him say those words to her. Almost like he was rushing, the man quickly kissed Kaliya on the forehead once more before leaving the room. Kaliya just laid on the bed, unmoving, breathing softly. Who is that man?
Before I could use the Eye to follow the man out, I heard Kaliya sigh and fix her bangs that had been hidden in her hair and grabbed her cellphone that had been sitting on the bedside table and pressed a button.
Whatever number she called picked up right away and a feminine voice screeched out, "Tell me everything!!"
Kaliya giggled and rolled over on her bed, holding the phone at her stomach. "He kissed me again today."
Both girls squealed and Kaliya curled up in a ball, her phone touching her forehead.
"Are you, like, dating now?" The voice quickly said, teeming with excitement.
Kaliya's face twitched for a second as her expression became slightly somber. "Ah.. No not yet. He still hasn't left his wife."
He's married?!
"Seriously? He needs to deal with that before he starts kissing you!"
Kaliya's body melted into the bed as the air began to get heavier. "I know.. I want him too.. But," She tried to materialize. "We can't push him! He has to do things at his own pace. I can wait. I have my whole life."
"You're gonna waste forever on this guy?"
"I... I want to... " She melted again.
"Nobody is worth that, Kali, seriously!" Kali, cute. "but you of all people aren't worth that! You deserve, like, a millionaire with five thousand cars that wants to take you shopping all the time!"
Kaliya laughed, stretching her body out on the bed. "That's what you want! I want someone who is going to take care of me.. love me.. Matthew does all of that for me!"
"Whatever you say. I'm still gonna say you're shooting low, though! You seriously deserve so much better." The joking tone the voice carried before was gone now replaced with a solumn voice. Whoever this was truly cared for Kaliya. Unfortunately, it seems like Kaliya is someone who doesn't believe anyone until they see for themselves. My last assignment was the same way, which is probably why she ended up with such a rotten fate path.
"Thank you, Claire. Hearing you say it does make me feel better, I love you so much." Kaliya curled up against her phone. "I'm pretty tired though, my heart was racing all night! You okay if we continue this tomorrow?"
"Mm-mm! I'll pick you up around 8am?"
"Yes! See you then, I love you!"
"I love you, too, bye!"
Kaliya hung up and held her phone to her chest for a moment. I motioned with my hand to open up the tools menu on the monitor and used the vital reader to see that her heart was indeed racing, no wonder she wore her body out. There were so many features on this monitor I never bother using, like one's that interact with the environment and one's that spawn items into your assignment's reality, I don't see the point in meddling in their lives in that way. Actually, since I've last used this machine it looks like there's been an update to the tools. There's an extra button here at the bottom titled, "Dreams". We can interact with their dreams now? Previously there's only been a viewport to see the dream your assignment is having, this is very interesting. Humans can dream up some insane things and if I'm able to harness that energy, I can have a lot of fun, probably.
Now just to wait for her to go to sleep, which shouldn't be too long, it was well past midnight in the earth reality. Though, for some reason, Kaliya was obsessed with her phone. Not to mention, she hasn't even paid attention to the closet nearly bursting from the seams.
Wait, actually, it is bursting from the seams.
Trash and decorations like figures and posters snapped out of the closet and landed all over the room. One of the figures thrown out hit Kaliya in the head and she laid on the ground with her feet in the air like a cartoon character. So it was waiting to burst at any second? What if that had happened when he was on top of you? I couldn't help but laugh at her as she rubbed her head, trying to calm down the pain rushing through her body.
She was kind of cute.
Kaliya let out a sigh and started to clean up her room, first hanging and putting up all the decorations.
I don't know why I did it. Maybe it was because I felt guilty for laughing at her. Or maybe for some other reason entirely.
Either way, the fact is that I did it. Without thinking, I began to use the tool that allows me to interact with their reality to help her pick up her trash, moving things only when she wouldn't notice them. I put things slowly inside a trash bag Kaliya had brought into her room. Thankfully, Kaliya is a little bit of an airhead, she didn't even question once the bag was tied and ready to be taken out.