Attachment Theory states that personalities are heavily influenced by how people are raised.
For example, a codependent individual could be seen in public meditating constantly in high friction social situations to save relationships.
This could be based on these individuals not being able to keep healthy boundaries with others in the past.
On the other hand, a hyper independent individual might not see the value of relying on others.
These groups of people in their past may have had absent care givers during their childhood to create this facade within their personality.
In this world many have scars or flaws. The council has conditioned the public to mask their scars or flaws to be functional in society. These masks these citizens wear are worn loosely however and have a caveat of one day shattering.
The bright orange lights in the bar were not so different from the sight of the sun outside. A sight Ivory had grown sick of seeing.
The tiles on the ground were shades of green and white culminating together to form what appeared to be an optical illusion on the ground. A design that looked to be inescapable.
Ivory's eyes were fixated on the ground and she wasn't able to look away.
This illusion felt as though it was created to tell each and everyone of them in the diner that they couldn't escape from it.
Abigail slowly rose from the maroon booth the group had been sitting in for the past few minutes. The young woman moved like she had been drawn by hand, moving picture by picture out of frame.
Ivory felt her heart race as she grabbed Abigail's right hand instinctively.
Ivory chuckles, "Abigail… What are you doing? I'm not going to…"
Abigail turns to look at her with a coldness she hadn't shown her before, "I'm signing up for the training camp."
Ivory's mouth was agape, "I… You don't even have abilities."
Abigail says, "Listen Ivory, I'm tired of sitting back and letting this play out. I know what I want to do."
Abigail swats her hand away.
Ivory stands up to face her, "I get it. This whole ordeal, it's a lot. You're being irrational though…"
Abigail gives a half smile, "You don't get it. Do you?"
Ivory clenches her fist, "Help me understand why you would want to train to fight in this bloodlusted war?"
Abigail shakes her head avoiding her gaze, "I suspected it for a while but I didn't realize what they took from me."
Ivory says, "What?"
Faye leans back in the booth taking a drag from her cigar. The smoke filled the entire booth in an instant.
The two young women held their breath instinctively until the smoke passed through the booth.
Abigail says, "I believe my parents were sunburn users Ivory. I was lost before but I put it all together a few minutes ago."
Ivory says, "Here lead me through it. We can figure this out together."
Abigail says, "Roughly six years ago, my parents had both gone missing."
Ivory says, "I'm so sorry Abigail. I didn't know."
Abigail continues, "I was fifteen then…"
Abigail sighs, "Two officers dressed in all white and black gear labeled TUCOF on the front of their uniforms, knocked at my door. The two had told me that my parents unfortunately died in a hospital nearby due to having a case of the sunburn."
Abigail chuckles to herself, "Do you know what the funny part is?"
Ivory shook her head.
Abigail says, "The two were never even admitted into that hospital."
Ivory felt her vision begin to blur as tears came out of her eyes. Her brain was thinking faster than her mind.
Abigail had made up her mind and was set on leaving her behind.
Ivory sniffles, "Abigail don't do this."
Abigail meets her gaze with determination, "Ivory, I'm done pretending that everything is okay. I want my home back and I want to know what really happened to my parents."
Ivory wipes her eyes, "I understand but fighting in a war that we aren't even guaranteed to win? Fighting to change a world, we can't change? It's not worth it."
Abigail spits on the ground and turns her back, "I feel sorry for you. The council really has brain washed you, haven't they Ivory?"
Abigail moves toward the line Faye was attending to.
The young woman must've not wanted to interact with a faceless.
Ivory felt her heart race. Why did it feel like the roles were reversed? Why did she feel like she was so out of the loop now?
Ivory felt her throat become constricted and that it suddenly became very hard to breathe. Was this how her friend felt when she withheld information from her?
Her friend was actively trying to figure out the mystery of her parents disappearance and she only hindered the process.
She was such a terrible person. Why did Abigail become friends with her in the first place?
The sunburn reacted to her discomfort and red snow flake patterns glowed on her neck for a moment. The young woman felt calmer and that she could breathe easier instantly.
She sat on the seat opposite of Faye in the maroon booth.
Ivory sneers, "Faye, why did you let her join this war?"
Faye puts both of her open palms in the air and makes her right hand's middle and pointer finger hold her cigar, "I don't magically control her Ivory. She makes her own decisions."
The older woman takes another drag from her cigar and blows the smoke out of her mouth.
Faye says, "Though, I was the one who told her that people without abilities could join the training camp."
Ivory lays her head on top of the table connected to the booth, "I think I'm starting to get why people without the mutation hate me. I'm just messing everything up and losing everyone in the process."
Faye pauses before saying, "You haven't lost anything, yet."
Ivory sits up straight, "What do you mean?"
Faye sighs, "I don't think Abigail hates you entirely, she's just someone who has a different goal."
Ivory chuckles, "Did you see her? She's acting like a different person now."
Faye grimaces, "You're forgetting a rule of this world Ivory. The faceless aren't the only ones who wear masks."
Ivory shakes her head, "I don't care. What do you think I should do?"
Faye says, "Sign up…"
Ivory quickly interrupts, "No."
Faye says, "Let me finish. Sign up for the training camp but weasel your way out of the war. That's an option even if it's not a popular one."
Ivory sighs, "I might have some more time to speak with her then maybe."
Faye says, "Briefly. These are lines that will barely intersect and will be parallel ninety percent of the time."
What type of training class would someone without abilities be attending? A martial arts class?
She had no idea what Abigail would be doing? Would her friend really be okay?
Ivory stared toward Abigail waiting in line and back at Faye.
Ivory says, "Is there really no other way?"
Faye shakes her head, "You're an adult Ivory. Take her charge and make your own decisions."
Ivory stands up from the booth and walks absentmindedly toward the long line. Abigail stood right in front of her and she wouldn't even turn back to talk to her.
The line grew shorter and shorter as the two didn't even speak a word to each other.
Finally the two young women were able to reach the front of the line.
Lyra wore an elegant black dress paired with some black gloves. Her fingers flew across the rectangular blue digital display she held in her hands with the cursive letters HM on the back of the device.
Ivory felt the older woman's outfit was jarring considering the holiday sweater she had seen her wear in the past. Why would Lyra dress this nice for a declaration of war against the council?
Nothing seemed to make sense today to Ivory.
Lyra scrolls through her display, "Full Name?"
Abigail says, "Abigail Charlotte Hathaway."
Lyra's eyes widened for a second before she quickly composed herself.
Lyra coughs awkwardly, "Do you have any abilities?"
Abigail says, "No."
Lyra nods her head, "I'll assign you to the classes learning how to operate the GS."
Ivory clenched her teeth. What the hell was the GS? What was Abigail learning how to operate?
Abigail nodded her head while slowly walking out of the diner.
The two young women make eye contact for a brief second after Abigail reaches the door but she quickly turns her head away from her.
The door closes and an overwhelming amount of sadness consumes Ivory's heart once again.
Ivory's sadness was returning to her body after the effects of the sunburn went away. Why did she have to lose one of the only people who cared about her?
Lyra sighs, "Ivory?"
Ivory says absentmindedly while looking toward the door of the diner, "Hey lyra, I want to join the training camp for sunburn users."
Lyra looks at her, "Are you sure?"
Ivory says, "Yeah. I need to learn how to use my abilities more efficiently."
Lyra says, "Alright repeat your full name for me Ivory."
Ivory says, "Ivory Ellison Crimrose."
Lyra says, "Perfect, I'll add you to the list. Go to the inn down the street and get a room to rest up in. Tomorrow morning, meet on the muddy terrain on the lower floor."
Ivory nods, "Alright see you then."
Ivory lowered her head and walked out of the diner. There was nothing she could do.
She started to make her way towards the small inn within walkable distance labeled "Either you're Inn or out."
The inn sounded more like a phrase than the name of a building.
Ivory smiled sadly, "Abigail was right. All of these places created during the shift did have weird names."
Her phone in her dirty white coat's pocket made a loud sound that was similar to a cash register being opened.
The young woman had forgotten entirely that she even had a phone these last few days.
Ivory took her phone out of her pocket with a frown on her face when she saw the incoming notification.
The automated system message says, "Dear user, you have been inactive at work and frequently missing your quota. The management has decided your actions must invoke a penalty to be added to your account. Please work diligently and you will return to your prior point total in no time. Thank you. This was an automated message and not edited by the management team."
Ivory clicked on the notification and her phone launched the Pointly app.
The main menu popped up and when she went to check on her total point balance in the corner of the screen. She found out it became a four. This point value total would barely be enough to afford to stay in an Inn.
The point system replaced money in the economy but it was often called by the same label. It was managed through an app on your phone that allows you to make purchases based on your consistency to accomplish the quotas.
A score of (1-3) allows an individual to buy the bare necessities needed to survive. A score of (1-5) allows you to buy higher quality food and a place to stay in. A score of (6-8) which is the higher median average among people, allows you to do all of the above and have access to a variety of extravagant activities. A score of (9-10) is in most cases impossible for the average person to attain.
The only individuals that have this score are at the top of society that found a way to manipulate the system in their favor. Or you could be a zombie that never sleeps and always works.
Ivory shook her head, "I'll make this work somehow."
The young woman reached the inn and lightly knocked at the door.
She was ready to have a good night's rest after her shitty day.
The door slowly creaked open revealing a faceless woman wearing a top hat, a black suit, and having two red keys for eyes.
Ivory's eyes widened. There was another faceless in this underground city?
The faceless with keys for eyes says, "Would you like… a room?"
Ivory nods her head, "Yes, please."
The faceless holds out a device to scan her phone for payment.
Ivory holds out her phone with her fingers crossed.
Please don't decline. Please don't decline.
The faceless looks at her, "A Pointly score of four. A bit short but this will be fine for today."
Ivory smiles politely, "Thank you. I really do appreciate it."
The faceless takes two of her large fingers to remove one of the red keys from her eyes. She then with shaky hands, hands the key to Ivory.
The empty keyslot on her face opened wider at first and closed the space. A key deliberately squirmed throughout her face like a worm to finally replace the empty hole.
The faceless with keys for eyes says, "Enjoy your stay."
Ivory was utterly disgusted but tried to give a polite smile, "Thank you.."
Ivory wondered who this faceless was and why she had a mysterious aura to her.
This day had become more odd with more time that passed.
The faceless woman pauses before saying, "Call me. K."
Ivory didn't turn her head back. The faceless had already somehow read her mind.
She walked past the faceless and stumbled into an endless hallway.
There were rows of red doors in the yellow corridor labeled with different numbers in dark shades of gold, labeled one to one thousand.
She found herself staring at the red key in her hand without a number on it with utter confusion.
Where was her room?
Ivory mumbled to herself, "Could she just pick any room?"
The young woman tried to place the key into room number one and found that the door almost magnetically took the key out of her hands.
The key turned by itself and the door quickly opened revealing a standard hotel room.
Two orange beds were placed toward the right and left side of the room. An older modeled wide screen tv was placed on the wall and two wooden night stands were placed near both of the beds.
Ivory took off her dirty white coat and jumped straight into bed. Tears ran down her face while she confronted the fact that she was all alone again.
She wanted to change her current situation so badly but all she could do now was rest.
The young woman wiped her eyes.
Tomorrow would be the first day of the training camp and she needed all the rest she could get to be prepared for it.
In the near future she would definitely get a chance to make up with Abigail.
Everything would be okay.
The idea of a peaceful resolution between the two made Ivory slowly lower her eyelids and finally fall asleep.