Life Hacks/Use the duck
The whole situation in context, you are almost 100% sure he has become a run-away. That being the case, you simply cannot concionably ignore this. Problem is, he is probably not your biggest fan now after what just went down at the park earlier. Fortunately, you have the perfect solution to that.
With a quick and fluid motion you reach into the sleeve of your jacket and you pull out and squeeze the duck. First thing’s first then, with a quick motion you access that new time-stop feature Loki had just given you. Now with things brought to a stand-still, you walk down to the end of the street so that you can get Billy back in view. He is most certainly a fast little scamp, in the time it took you to use the duck, he had already made it around the corner.
Once he IS back in view, you make a gesture toward him and he is immediately bathed in a golden light as his profile information becomes visible to you. You are not at all surprised to see he dislikes and fears you. Guess you are gonna have to fix that then… wait… hold on here! Just as you are about to start adjusting “his” relationship stats so that “he” will be easier for you to talk down, you notice the name at the top of the profile. “Willamina,” or “Billie” for short. That’s the female version of the name, isn’t it? Surprised by this bit of information, you go into the traits menu and scroll down to gender, and indeed it is currently set to female.
What the fuck! This girl-hating kid was a girl herself the whole time? Damn! Her father must have really fucked her up to get her like this. You really don’t know what to make of this exactly. Well, for now you guess you ought to just do what you came here to do.
You flick back to the relationship stats and then find her relationship with you right at the top of the list. It may feel a little weird given the situation, but you figure since it is to protect the kid from whatever dangers might befall… HER as a result of running away you would be best off overdoing it and setting her to the max in trust, friendliness, and submissiveness. Also, why not add in family love as well? You wonder for all of half a second about boosting romantic love too, but your conscience gets the better of you and instead you close out of the relationship scores immediately before you can be tempted to do something that might haunt you. Continuing to force yourself, you then hover your finger over the button to re-start time as you mentally prep yourself for what kind of approach you should take. It would probably be best to continue treating her as a boy for the time being. You have no idea what the outcome might be if you reveal you know her secret while she is in this state.
Ok, it’s go time. You click on the button to re-start time, and “Billie’s” running pace immediately continues.
“Billy” You call out, “don’t run, what’s going on?” Your words seem to freeze her in place for a moment, and then she immediately pulls a 180 and begins running full speed back at you, barreling right into your chest and clinging to your jacket with every ounce of her strength as she begins to cry.
“I..” -snif- “they… some weird lady… she came to my house and said my dad was arrested and I couldn’t live with him anymore. I… she tried to make me go with her.”
“Hey, hey, it’s Ok Billy, you’re safe, Ok?”
-snif- “What’s going on?” She asks, pressing herself even deeper into your chest, seeking security from the one person who, as of 2 minutes ago, she trusts most in the world.
“She was probably with child protective services,” you tell her. “They’re kind of like special police officers that make sure children aren’t being treated badly.”
“Well they suck at their job!” Billie bites violently.
Wait, what? That sounds like there is a pretty big something behind it. Really wouldn’t surprise you with what you know about her father already, including forcing her to act like a boy. Just what else has he done?
What will you do?
- Ask Billie what she means by that
- Couch that issue for now, what are you gonna do about her being a run-away?
Infinity Pocket
Loki controls the local area.
