“She’s the only child of my best friend, David McMullen. He would have done it himself if he had the opportunity. He didn’t, and he needs to be there to help Kaylee through these years where she feels as if life has been taken away from her. Did you know she always called me Uncle Seamus? When I went to see her after the attack she didn’t even want me in the room with her. She is physically broken and mentally scarred. Her father is the only man she’ll speak to now. She had scholarships to Harvard and Yale waiting for her to pick one because of her academic scores. How would she be able to deal with university when she can’t stand to be around any man other than her father?” Seamus felt his hands ache and realized he had them clenched tightly. He set down the bent pen and started to take deep breaths to clear his mind. “We’re done talking about this.”
“But…” Moore started, but cut off as he met Seamus’s eyes.
“We are done with that topic Moore. Period, end of fucking story, okay?” Seamus knew his eyes burned with anger even though it wasn’t directed at Moore. The wound of seeing the girl he treated as a daughter flinching away from him while crying had reopened from talking about it. He felt the same raw anger he had the day he had executed her attacker on his way to court. “Papers are done, and so are we.”
Moore nodded, picking up the papers and pen before going over and knocking on the door. A minute later the guards came to escort Seamus back to his cell. Flinging himself onto his bed, he grabbed his pillow and covered his head. He could still hear her crying and telling him to leave her alone even after all this time. David had visited a few times after Seamus had committed the murder. The last time was four months ago when David told him Kaylee was finally going home with him. She hadn't improved since the attack which had made Seamus even more worried for her.
Seamus came to some time later, his head on an oak desk. Sitting up he wiped at his mouth in case of drool, Seamus found himself sitting in a richly appointed study. Two walls were floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with all different types of books. He picked out a few of his favorites in leather binding before he tore his eyes away from them. The carpet was thick and shaded a deep grey that felt wonderful on his bare feet. Blinking, he looked down to find himself barefoot but wearing jeans and shirt. The desk held no computer or knickknacks of any kind, not even the obligatory picture frame. Just as he thought about getting up the door opened to allow a woman in.
She was wearing a modest white sundress with yellow flowers on it. Looking her over quickly, Seamus noted she was a little heavy set but very attractive, if anything the little padding she had helped accentuate her curves. His eyes found full red lips pursed in a quirky smile, above which was a button nose and two of the most intelligent grey eyes he had ever seen. Her raven dark hair was in a tight bun above her head, showing off her long neck and cute ears. “Hello Mr. Masterson, it is good to finally meet you.”
Seamus stood up as she came to the desk and extended his hand. “The pleasure is mine Miss, but you do seem to have the advantage of me. Can I get you to tell me your name?”
A delightful soft laugh filled the air, “My name is Victoria, but you can call me Vicky if you would like. I hope you are feeling well today?” She took his hand in her soft grip giving it a firm shake before taking a seat in her chair.
Blinking, Seamus sat back down when she released his hand. “Vicky, where am I?”
“Oh, sorry I thought they told you about me. I’m the AI that will be doing your psych evaluation. In fact I started a few minutes ago when you spoke with Moorehead. I find that very interesting indeed. Did you find me using your memories to build a scenario wrong?” Victoria asked sitting forward slightly, her eyes intense on him.
“Wait, what? That talk I just had with my attorney wasn’t real? I’m really in the pod already?” Seamus asked rapidly, his eyes widening slightly. “It all seemed so real, though.”
“That was the point, to get a real truthful answer from you and to judge your reactions to it. I want to do more scenarios during the evaluation, but I’ve been told if you object I have to stop. So I am going to do it the easy way and ask up front, can we do more of those? It really helps me better gauge things.”
“How?” Seamus asked bluntly, still reeling from what he was being told.
“I can pick up your surface thoughts during this evaluation. So, as you react to things I can see what you are thinking as you react. You clearly thought about hitting Moore to make him shut up. You dismissed that idea and asked him to stop with quite a lot of intensity instead. I know the topic bothers you a great deal now, so I will try to avoid touching it so directly for now.”
“I really didn’t care for that at all, Vicky. If you stay away from my crime and why it happened we can do another scenario or two. I want to know if this evaluation can be used against me in any way?”
“No Seamus, it can’t be used against you, think of this as doctor confidentiality. Once you go in game your pod will have a live video feed of your character so they can see what is going on in case something triggers a medical crisis. Until you log in, there will be no record. I am just here to get a good idea of how you react to things. Do you know anything about Alpha World?” Vicky asked, settling back in her chair and crossing her legs.
Seamus resisted the urge to look down as she did so while he shook his head. “The basics, it's a FIVR MMORPG with a fantasy setting. Mindblown has been working on it for the last two years and it goes live in a week or so. Standard elf, dwarf and human as the races available and the class system I think is roughly the same standard thing fantasy settings have used for decades.”
“Okay, so a very rough idea then of the basics,” Vicky replied. “Let’s further your understanding, shall we? The races available also include the Lunari, or cat-people, in the starting choices. There will be chances for people to change races in the game thanks to various quests or items they can find. A Lunari Vampire, as an example, is entirely possible.” She chuckled as Seamus raised an eyebrow. “Also, the classes are very diverse. Elementalist, Necromancer, Summoner, Shadow Dancer, Trap Smith, Priest, Shaman, Paladin, Berserker, Defender and several other classes are available to starting players. At each level, except every fifth, every class gains a spell or spell-like action that do not require visiting a trainer to learn. At each fifth level you are given options for abilities by your trainer to help specialize you. This system helps make each person playing, an Elementalist for instance, different than the others.”
Chuckling, Seamus considered the possibilities. “Are the choices limitless or is there a set number to choose from? Are all options available right away or do you get more and more choices at each fifth level?”
“Two choices every fifth level, along with the option of taking one that you passed by previously. Statistics are a given value at the start based on class, and each level you get a number of points to distribute as you see fit. So a strength heavy Elementalist is possible, but it would be a really bad idea. The idea is to allow people to play the way they want to, even if it means they have a really weak character. That is enough about the game for now, though. Alpha World is not here yet and you have the chance at increased stats for taking this test. So, shall we continue with the scenarios?” Vicky asked as she recrossed her legs while leaning forward eagerly.
“Let’s see what you have in store for me before we commit to more than this one,” Seamus replied, again forcing himself to not follow the motion of her legs.
The room vanished, replaced by a frozen scene. A small kitten was in a tree twenty feet up, directly below it was a large hornet nest with hornets all about it. The tree was in the front of a house with an open garage door. Inside the garage was a lot of junk to Seamus’s eyes as he took in the whole picture.