Chapter 2: Chapter 2.1: Heavy Lifting

Vell laid in bed for an hour or so, staring at the ceiling. He was trying to wrap his head around what he was going to do on the first loop.

Technically, nothing he did today really mattered -anything he did would be undone and forgotten. He could walk into the quad and slap everyone he saw in the face and the next time he woke up, no one would remember. His palm wouldn’t even hurt from all the slapping. Vell didn’t like slapping people on principle, so he retired that idea shortly after it flitted through his head. He also considered just not getting out of bed, and taking this ‘free’ day as an opportunity to sleep in. Alternatively, he could stay in his dorm, order as much fast food as he could afford, and spend all day pigging out -he wouldn’t gain any weight and he wouldn’t have spent any money, really. Or he could call Harley and do the horizontal tango with her for a while. Apparently he had an open invitation.

But, just as Vell had told Harley yesterday, the specter of an inevitable apocalypse hung over him. It was difficult to enjoy anything when you knew the world was going to end -albeit briefly- at some point in the same day.

With a sigh, Vell got out of bed. Laying in bed would make it very difficult to identify and prevent the apocalypse. Vell got showered, then started getting dressed as he formulated a plan for the day. He had to deal with regular college shit at some point, so he’d spend today acting the part of a normal student, finding out where his classes were located and what kind of teachers he had. With his responsibilities out of the way, he’d be able to dedicate more time on the second loop to preventing the daily doomsday. Vell was certain Harley would find it ridiculous that he was using his free day to be responsible, but some things needed to be done.

Before he finished putting on his shirt, Vell took a close look at the thick scar around his abdomen. He needed to get some answers about his resurrection eventually, and the research he could do here was the best chance of that. He had to take his studies seriously at some point.

First up on the agenda, in the literal and figurative sense, Vell needed to know more about the essence of life itself. The College’s department of biological sciences had a long list of chi-related classes, and Vell had decided to start with Medicinal Chi 101. The art of using chi to heal seemed like the closest connection to potentially using chi to resurrect someone. Though even that “closest” connection was a massive leap. He didn’t have much else to get on but hunches and assumptions, though, so it was as good a start as any.

Being the last of his roommates to wake up, Vell had no problems taking a shower or preparing his breakfast in their shared living space. Renard stepped into the dorm while Vell ate his waffles. The redheaded roommate perked up when he saw Vell.

“Hey Vell, are the rune tech labs next to the cloning facility?”

“I don’t think this place has a cloning facility,” Vell said. Renard put a hand on his chin contemplatively.

“Wait, but we saw those two dudes who looked exactly the same the yesterday…”

“I think those were twins, Renard,” Vell said.

“Oh,” Renard said. “That would make more sense, yeah.”

Renard stepped out of the dorm once more. Vell stepped past him on his own way out the dorm, and saw Renard giving directions to a red-eyed young woman. The fact that she had red eyes stood out much less today than it might have yesterday -both yesterday’s. In his wanderings around campus Vell had seen people wandering around with a few different eye colors, and as he crossed the quad he even saw someone who apparently had antlers. Magical cosmetic alterations were pretty common, even among groups not as magically gifted as the students at this college. Vell had considered learning a few such spells himself -something he was considering more strongly now that he knew he could try it out without risk of looking stupid. Once he had a few loops under his belt, he’d try changing his hair color. For now, he had higher priorities. He had to get to class.

Vell stepped into the classroom and saw that most blessed sight to any new student; a familiar face. Even if it did take him a second to recognize Leanne. Her athletic garb and neatly tied ponytail had been abandoned in favor of unkempt, unwashed hair and loose-fitting clothing. The most striking change was the box of donuts sitting open on the desk in front of Leanne. She was halfway through shoveling one into her mouth when Vell walked up and took a seat next to her.

“Hi Leanne,” he said. She paused mid-bite long enough to look in his direction. Vell appraised the box of donuts, and the significant progress she’d made in eating her way through it.

“Don’t have to worry about counting calories on the first loop, huh?”

Leanne gave a knowing smile and a nod. She tilted the box Vell’s way, and he gratefully took one of the smaller donuts for himself.

Vell took a bite and immediately choked on it as the professor walked through the door and let loose with an airhorn. Every student jumped to attention, most of them covering their ears or letting out yelps of surprise.

“Just making sure you’re all awake,” the professor said. “I find early morning students to be too lethargic for proper chi movement. The flow of chi is at its strongest when both body and mind are alert and active, and you can hardly understand chi if yours isn’t pumping.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The professor placed his airhorn on the desk and flexed in several poses as he demonstrated his own physique. There was a lot to display, but not in the good way. He looked more suited to a Florida retirement home than a mountain monastery.

“I am Doctor Montgomery, and starting today, I am your guide through all the myriad mysteries your body is capable of.”

Vell wasn’t sure he wanted to find out any of the mysteries that this guy’s body was capable of.

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Vell’s next few classes passed by without incident, and without much interest. The professors failed to accost Vell’s ears with an airhorn, so they were all a step up from Doc Montgomery. They were all teaching rune and rune tech-related topics, which attracted a less “vibrant” crowd than chi.

After being loosed from his first afternoon class, Vell had a break in his schedule long enough to grab something to eat. He decided to take a page from Leanne’s book and treat himself to anything -and everything-he wanted. He perused the dining hall’s offerings for what seemed most tempting, as did many other students -including another familiar and now very frustrated face.

The red-eyed woman who Renard had been talking to earlier in the day patted her side frantically and then sighed. Vell hazarded a guess as to the source of her frustration.

“Forgot your bag?”

“Yeah,” the woman said. “Any chance you know any retrieval spells? My debit card was in there.”

“No such luck,” Vell said. “But I do know a spell that’ll get you lunch. It’s called ‘I’m buying’.”

While this woman’s problems would inevitably be erased later today, Vell saw no reason to leave her unhappy. The same loop that would erase her forgotten purse would also erase any problems he faced as a result of helping her. Like many college students, she did not back down from the offer for free food, though she did order some of the cheapest stuff on the menu. Vell himself ordered a lot less than he’d been hoping to, since now he had someone else looking over his shoulder and making him self-conscious.

“Thanks for this,” the red-eyed woman said. “I’m Joan Marsh. Just started yesterday.”

“Vell Harlan. I’m a freshman too,” he said. They took a seat. Vell glanced sideways at the hallway where he’d first seen Lee and Harley yesterday. No sign of them today, at least.

“Oh yeah? What do you think of the place so far?”

Vell paused.

“I’m still figuring it out,” Vell said, counting that as an honest answer.

“Same here,” Joan said. “You’re that Renard guy’s roommate, right? You saw me asking him how to get around this place, so you can guess how well I’m adjusting.”

“This place isn’t really easy to get around. Maybe I’m just crazy, but I think the buildings rearrange when you’re not looking,” Vell said. Joan snorted with laughter, though Vell had been entirely serious.

“I heard sometimes the staff straight up removes all the staircases from the dorms,” Joan said. “It ‘encourages creative problem solving’, so they say.”

“Hmm. I’ll have to invest in a levitation rune.”

“I’ve got a neighbor who’s working on something like that,” Joan advised. “You majoring in runes?”

“Runic medicine,” Vell said. Joan’s ears perked up.

“Hey, me too,” Joan said. “Maybe I’ll see you in class, huh?”

Vell nearly got a chance to respond to that before a slap on his back nearly caused him to choke on a mouthful of food. After percussively announcing her presence, Harley sat down in the seat next to Vell.

“Hey Vell, how’s it hanging?” She asked. “Hey Vell’s new friend, how’s it hanging?”

“Hi Harley,” Vell coughed. Joan and Harley made their own introductions.

“So, uh, Joan, I was about to say,” Vell said, trying to get his conversation back on track. “Are you-”

Vell interrupted himself this time. The lights flickered on and off for a few seconds, bathing the room in intermittent darkness. That alone was not much of an interruption, but shortly afterwards, a french fry floated in front of Vell’s face. Harley snatched it out of the air and popped it into her mouth. Shortly after she finished chewing, most of the room started to float as well. The dining hall tables -and all their occupants- began to slowly drift towards the ceiling. Vell watched his lunch slowly drift away from him and sighed.

“Huh. I guess this is it for the day,” Harley said. If she’d known she’d be floating upside down in front of the whole dining hall today, she would’ve worn a skirt. She floated upside down anyway.

“Should be an interesting fix,” Vell said with a sigh. He took hold of the table he’d been seated at and clung to it, hoping for at least some sense of stability. Joan grabbed on to the same table, though she clung to it for dear life. Since Vell and Harley gave the impression they somehow knew what was going on, Joan plied them for answers.

“What’s happening?”

They were all a good forty or fifty feet off the ground now. Vell cursed the architects of this place and their love of vaulted ceilings. The further they drifted up, the further they would, presumably, fall down.

“Oh, if I had to guess, I’d say some kind of anti-grav device accident,” Harley said. She stuck a straw into a blob of soda floating by her head and drank it out of the air.

“Maybe some...particle accelerator accidentally destroyed gravity itself?” Vell posited. He made an effort to match Harley’s cavalier attitude, hoping that he could make good on the old saying “fake it until you make it”. He tried to shuffle along the table’s edge and get closer to his floating lunch, but couldn’t quite reach it. He watched his pizza drift into the cloud of panicked dining hall denizens and sighed.

“Ooh, good one,” Harley said. “Let me hit you with this; somebody accidentally pulled Earth into Jupiter’s orbit and we’re caught between the two gravitational pulls.”

“I can’t tell if that’s more or less outlandish than my theory,” Vell said. Harley shrugged. Joan looked between the two of them with equal disbelief.

“What do we do?”

“Try to land on your head,” Harley said. Vell nodded and began to shift himself upside-down as he floated. “Less painful that way.”

Joan let out a shriek of terror and confusion while Vell addressed more pragmatic concerns.

“You done this before?” Vell asked.

“Yeah, weightlessness spell mishap last year, it didn’t go-”

Whatever was happening to gravity stopped happening, and everything that had gone up started to come down. While Vell had nothing to compare it to, he felt like Harley was right. Hitting head first didn’t hurt much at all.