My Life Can't Be This Gacha

Context: though Amanda is from a minority race in Malaysia, she does not have a particularly terrible view or common experience of the police. The Malaysian police are perceived as corrupt and incompetent, rather than actively malicious, particularly the traffic police who are on a constant hunt for coffee money. Of course, the view varies according to background and branch.

The Malaysian police have had a history of brutality with regards to opposition to the ruling government, notably using tear gas, water cannons, mass detentions, etc. during the 2007/ 2011/ 2012 Bersih rallies. They also were involved in the accused rigging of the 2013 General Election, and as a result were mobbed during the 2018 General Election when people suspected them of being used to ferry false ballots to poll counting stations. Of course, it's not UMNO holding the reins anymore...

The ISA refers to the Internal Security Act 1960, which basically allows for detention without trial or criminal charges and was supposed to deter only communist activity. It proved far too useful for the ruling government and has stuck around ever since, despite promises to repeal it. It has been used against many, many people, of which most were not active communists.

Amanda's personal negative experiences of the police are:
- when somebody broke into Pa's car and stole everything he'd left in it, and the police simply never solved the case
- Ma having to tip the traffic policeman RM50 every time she ran a yellow light and he claimed she'd run the red light
- that time the police came to school to give a speech during Monday morning assembly and talked for three hours

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There are police at the door. You dart behind the curtain, heart beating fast. Already the fog of sleep deprivation and last night's overeating are fading, chased away by sharp adrenaline. You don't think they've seen you, but.

The doorbell rings again, insistently. You're... just glad they haven't rammed their way in yet. Or something. You actually aren't sure how police get past closed automatic gates. Do people just let them in?

You don't have much time to decide. You...

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1 SPIN AVAILABLE!

1 ROLL AVAILABLE!

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[ ] ...go to meet them. They're probably not here after you, though you keep your hair hidden in a cap anyway.
- [ ] Let them in. The police are just overworked civil servants. Nope. Even you can tell this is a bad idea.
- [ ] Talk to them through the closed gate.
- [ ] Don't even leave the house. Shout to them from the front door.
[ ] Run.
- [ ] What do you grab? (The more you take the slower you go. You're definitely taking the ★★★★ Fountain Pen plus signed running shoes, ★★★★★ Raincoat, ★★★★★ Sunglasses, and ★★★★ Brooch.)
-- [ ] The duffel bag of stuff from the Ches'.
-- [ ] Toiletries and a few changes of clothes.
-- [ ] The ★★ Fabric Softener.
-- [ ] The ★★★★★ Transmission Fluid.
-- [ ] Electronics - your phone charger, laptop, etc.
-- [ ] Write-in.
- [ ] Where do you go? (With the signed running shoes, you run like Usain Bolt. As long as it's a foot race, you're sure you can get away, at least until you run out of breath.)
-- [ ] The Ches'. They're good at keeping secrets, and you have the ★★★★★ Transmission Fluid plus the promise of Che Din's upcoming roll to persuade them with. On the other hand, they don't really have anywhere to hide you, and there's the matter of their massive family...
-- [ ] Ben's. He's blur and way too active on socmed for your comfort, but he's got a car and a spare room to hide you in.
-- [ ] Era's university. It's a long way from Ipoh to Melaka, and you'll need to figure out how to get to the bus station, but the farther you run the harder it is for the police to find you. You hope.
-- [ ] You don't know yet. You'll figure it out when you get there. For now you're just running the hell away.
[ ] Fight.
-- [ ] Use the ★★★★ Brooch to broadcast the situation to everybody in Taman Orkid.
-- [ ] Use the ★★★★★ Sunglasses to kill the car engine.
-- [ ] Use the ★★★★ Fountain Pen to autograph Pa's old golf clubs to fight with.
-- [ ] Write-in.

SUDDEN SPIN (only available if you choose to RUN or FIGHT, consumes no materials):
[ ] Something to prevent entry.
[ ] Something to prevent exit.

You are Amanda Wong, 18 years and almost two months old, and you're about to be homeless. On Boxing Day. Because of that group of policemen in the unmarked car out front by the gate. They're still pressing the doorbell, but a couple of them have headed back to the car for… whatever tools they use to get into houses that people don't want them to get into. It's not something that's ever come up on your Wikipedia trawling.

It's the fastest you've ever packed, heart thumping all the while. You keep circling back to the window, crouching under it and peeking out to try to keep track of how many of them there are and what they're doing. Clothes, electronics, soap, maybe, do you really think you'll get to shower soon? Throw it in anyway. Check the window again, they've found the padlock on the side opening of the automatic gate. Thank goodness Pa likes to buy big locks. They're rattling at it. No chance of it being unlocked, thank goodness.

More stuff thrown into the backpack. Passport, maybe, it's easy to get to Thailand from Ipoh, but will they catch you at customs? Never mind, throw it in anyway, just in case. You can hear the policemen shouting at each other. You peek. They've got a big cutter tool thing but the slits in the gate make it awkward to angle at the lock. Thank goodness again.

You slip running socks on. There's an irrational thing that makes you wonder how long it'll take 1OODB people to notice that Aunty 24/7 hasn't appeared in awhile. You don't have any of them on WhatsApp or Instagram or Facebook. You grab extra socks and stuff them into the backpack. It's heavy, but right now everything feels heavy. You grab an extra bottle of water, too. It adds to the weight but.

Loud crunching from outside. It sounds like they're getting through the lock. You need a way to keep them out while you get out the back door and through the little side alleys, you need -

A familiar sensation. You metaphorically reach out and SPIN and the bright blue circle flashes. More shouting from outside - they definitely know you're in here now. Just a single thick padlock and the front door between them and you. And the little blobby round thing in your hands. It looks like a large transparent gel pad the size of a pillow, filled taut like a water balloon. It's marked FRAGILE DO NOT DROP on one side and the other side is marked with a chilli-red onion. And as soon as you see it you know what to do with it, just like you do for all your other things. Lucky you. You drop it - carefully - near the front door, where somebody walking in is sure to step on it.

Then you grab your autographed shoes, open the back door and let yourself out. There's shouting from the front. It sounds like they've gotten through the side gate padlock. You lock the back door, stuff the keys in your backpack, and run.

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There's all kinds of ways to measure peak human performance. Speed is the most common one - that's sprints. Endurance is another one - that's marathons. Your shoes give you both. Of course you're not running at peak human speed or peak human stamina. You're running at what peak human speed and stamina would look like, if you dumped a heavy backpack on them. It's still pretty damned fast.

Where are you heading? You don't know. You need to be heading somewhere though, somewhere you can hide. The, uh. Sloshing noises come from inside the backpack. It's the ★★★★★ Transmission Fluid. The Ches. You can -

The wind shifts and you can smell acrid chilli and onion in the air. There are screams. Smells like somebody stepped on the gel pad. You squeeze off a WhatsApp message to Che Din, then load up Google Maps. Pity there isn't a route option for "most stealthy", but you'll just try and keep away from major roads when you can. Keep running through tamans and you should be fine.

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Your legs are burning. You're hiding in a tiny alley trying not to throw up. You also want to reach into the phone and strangle Che Din. How do you even prove you're being chased by the police?! You didn't exactly have the time to go and take a damn selfie with them!

tepi Shell kat masjid tmn Luwak( beside the Shell near the mosque at Luwak Gardens) you send him, trying to persuade him to come get you. cepat cepat!!( fast fast) you add.

"Eh ok ok tengah jalan ni,"( eh ok ok on my way) he replies in a voice message, and you want to strangle him even more. Why didn't your powers give you something that strangles people over WhatsApp? That would've been useful! On his way?! That could mean anything from "I'm still in bed" to "I'm almost there". It's a Thursday morning but he's a NEET just like you. What would you have been doing on any other Thursday morning?

...sleeping. You would have been sleeping. Urgh. Fine. You want to strangle him a little bit less.

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You had not expected Che Din to show up on Che Mat's motorbike, but in retrospect you should. It looks like peak human recovery was not part of the magic of the autographed shoes, because you're still slightly wobbly and he needs to help you onto the bike.

There's no real talking until the two of you are back at the Ches' house. It's a sprawling single-storey house that's mostly painted concrete on the outside and amateur woodwork on the inside. You're seated on a rather lumpy sofa and given a glass of warm water to drink. Che Mat grabs the bottle of ★★★★★ Transmission Fluid and heads out to his motorbike. Che Din looks expectantly for his smartphone, but it's nowhere to be seen. It's back at your house with the duffel bag of their stuff.

He frowns. "Next time I don't fetch you anymore."

Che Mat screams from outside. "DIN! DIN!! TENGOK TENGOK( see see) !!"

The two of them rush outside. There are more exclamations. You sit in the house nursing your empty mug. All that running away was thirsty work. You wonder what to do next. There aren't exactly empty rooms at the Ches', and you don't want to share a room with their… sisters or aunts or cousins, you're not sure exactly which of their relatives live with them but there must be some.

The Ches come back in, awed. "Eh Amanda you got hear or not?"

"Hear what?" you say, narrowing your eyes at them. You haven't forgotten wanting to strangle Che Din.

"Motor, motor!" says Che Mat. "Langsung takde bunyi kan? Kannnnn??"( there's no sound at all, right? Riiiiiiiight??)

"Oh. Yeah." It's true you don't hear anything from the motorbike at all. But that's what one hundred percent efficiency means… right?

"..." say the two brothers, looking at you.

You look at them.

They look at you.

"...dia dah apa ke,"( is she something) says Che Mat to Che Din under his breath but not so quietly than you can't hear him. "Macam apa saja..."( like that only)

You sigh. "Dah bagitau you kan."( I told you already, didn't I)

They look at each other. They look at you again. They sit down.

It's way too early in the morning to be dealing with all this shit.

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1 SPIN AVAILABLE!

1 ROLL AVAILABLE!

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You can't stay at the Ches', but what will you do?
[ ] Attempt to return home, hoping the police won't be staking out the house.

• You'll have to keep a very low profile.
• The police might come back at any time and you'll have to run.
• You maintain access to your support network.

[ ] Go to Era in Melaka. You'll have to figure out a whole new network of people, but it's as far as you feel comfortable going for now.
- [ ] Ask the Ches to send you down on Che Mat's newly enhanced motorbike.

• Faster and less traceable - and it's not like the Ches have anything to do right now.
• You'll owe the Ches another favour.
• Che Din will want you to at least find a way to get him his smartphone roll.

- [ ] Catch a bus down south from the station.

• Vulnerable to sudden roadblocks.
• Slower.

[ ] Check into one of those cheap hotels for a few days.

• Traceable, if the police decide to look for you that way.
• Costs money.
• Least inconvenience to other people.

[ ] Write-in.

Terminal Amanjaya is hot and humid despite the industrial fans mounted along the wall to try to shift air about. The stalls selling Ramly burgers and economy noodles and various sweet drinks generate greasy air that circulates sluggishly about and coats your skin and clothing. You were mobbed the moment you got off the Che's motorbike (still preternaturally smooth and quiet, and the maniacally gleeful look on Che Mat's face will haunt your dreams): a crowd of people rushing up to you asking where you want to go.

"Melaka," you'd said, and you'd been ushered off to one of the big buses at the terminal. You count that as a victory for your hair dye: it's clearly unnaturally black but it's better than the stifling heat of a cap or hoodie. They hadn't even bothered asking for your IC. You'd just handed the money over and said no when they asked about stowing your bag in the baggage compartment underneath the bus.

And so now you're sitting in one of the bus seats with the curtains drawn closed, peering out. You check your phone. It's in ultra battery saving mode, because you're not sure when you'll next have access to a power socket. The driver said the journey would take seven hours, which means you should arrive in time for late dinner or early supper. You shoot Era a text: Eh tonight u gg anywhere? I come see you, can? Then you turn off the mobile data to save the phone battery. You'll check again on it later. You've got seven hours to figure things out, anyway.

You look out the window. You hadn't had the time or the carrying capacity to bring a book, and none of your rolled gear is particularly useful for passing the time - not even the ★★★★★ Sunglasses, because looking at the world in infrared is only interesting for so long. At least, you think, it doesn't look like the police have managed to track you down to the bus station. Yet. You don't know how much they'll put into hunting you down.

Oh god, they're going to hunt you down. You're a fugitive. You are definitely not going to say that to Era because she's already going to be stressed enough. You need to find a way to break it to her gently that she needs to find somewhere to hide you from the police and whatever else the government has at its disposal, without letting her know that… yeah. That's not good at all. You're drawing blanks. It's probably because of all the frantic running around that you've had to do - after all, you've been running almost from the moment you woke up a few hours ago.

The bus still isn't moving. You were supposed to be off half an hour ago. You know that because you've gone up to the bus driver to ask, and he just shrugged. "Tunggu orang kejap,"( wait a moment for people) he'd said. Looking around you the bus only has five people on its thirty-something seats. No surprise, probably, since most of the people wanting to make eight-hour-long journeys probably started in the morning. Still, it stresses you out. Every minute spent in the terminal is another minute the police could be using to come down on you in the terminal, or to call in whatever it is they call in. Not the army, because there's no way they're going to do a darurat( emergency) thing just for you.

...right?

You frown. You can't really remember the last time Malaysia went into emergency status that way. Maybe during SARS, but you were way too young then to really be sure if that was an emergency. You'd Wikipedia it buuuuuut you have to conserve your phone battery.

The phone rings - it's Era. Oh god. You haven't even got your excuse ready for her! She's supposed to be in class or something!

"AMANDA," she says, somehow managing to hiss a word that has zero (0) sibilants in it. She is also managing to both whisper and scream at the same time. You are pretty sure that she is gripping her phone like it was your neck. "WHAT HAPPEN."

If you told her the truth she would probably find a way to literally crawl out your phone screen The Ring-style, you think. "Nothing nothing! Just want to come down see my best friend, cannot ah?"

The bus is beginning to move even though no new passengers have come on board. You check the time; it's just gone 4 p.m. "Eh also, I think I will reach around twelve like that. Got place makan or not ah( is there anywhere we can eat) ?" It is the most transparent deflection in the history of deflections. "Anyway just small thing only, I see you then tell you, okay?"

"You tell me first cannot ah?" She does not sound like she is calming down at all. "Just suddenly tell me you come down like that. I thought today your game got event [1]?"

"Yeah but see friend more important right?"

"Amanda skarang dah 2020 FaceTime ada sudah.( Amanda it's 2020, we have FaceTime) "

"Not for another five days!" you say smartly. "Then only wawasan dua puluh dua puluh.( 2020 Vision) [2]"

"...whatsapp," says Era, and ends the call, probably to go back to class. You look at the phone. There's still ninety-something percent of its battery remaining, and you've got a fully charged power bank… so, okay. You can whatsapp Era for a bit and calm her down.

Except that turning your mobile data on sets your WhatsApp off and running. Mostly it's the r/malaysia WhatsApp group - hundreds of messages within the last hour or so?! - and then it's Era, leaving a string of voice messages that (you check the timestamps) were sent just before the phone call and so you can safely assume all consist of her hiss-scream-whispering at you - and then there's a couple of voice messages from Che Mat. After all that you don't even dare to touch your Telegram or Discord.

No, wait, Discord. You quickly pop in to note on the 1OODB channel that you're sorry but something came up and you're going to be offline for a while. Responses start coming in almost at once. It's kind of heartwarming to receive well wishes from half the planet away.

Then it's back to WhatsApp. Era is online. A whole lot of people on the r/malaysia WhatsApp group are online too, the unread message counter ticking up almost as fast as you can blink. It's probably something ridiculously political. Or something silly on YouTube. You're never sure what will catch the attention of the subreddit. You run through Era's voice messages first. Yup, she's hiss-scream-whispering at you. It's very impressive, actually. Also, the Ches totally blabbed to her. You probably should have asked them to not tell her, but you don't think you could have stopped them.

"Police go your house?! How come? What happen?!" she starts, and the next five messages are variations on the theme: are you okay, what are you doing, did they hurt you. While you're still reading a series of new messages comes in, but forwarded from the r/malaysia WhatsApp group. They're all pictures of roadblocks. "You got see or not this one?" she demands, and drops a link to the subreddit. There's a thread on it already. "How you coming down?"

You sink back into your chair. "Transnasional bus," you tell her. " Baru keluar terminal( just left the terminal) ."

"Tengok Waze." she advises. " Roadblock banyak banyak kat Ipoh sana.( there are a lot of roadblocks near Ipoh) "

You lean back, exhale slowly, and think a lot of curse words very hard because you can't just stand up and scream them out. You check Waze because the universe apparently just wants your phone battery to die before you even reach KL. Roadblocks are popping up all over Ipoh, not exactly centred on your house, and definitely not centred on Terminal Amanjaya, so they probably don't yet know you're skipping town, just that you've got to be somewhere. And meanwhile reddit is going wild wondering just what happened in Ipoh.

Between reddit and Waze, you can see there aren't any roadblocks outside of Ipoh (yet), certainly not throughout the rest of the state or on the interstate highways. (The Ches drop you a message. Che Mat ran into a roadblock but they waved him and his anime-girl-covered super-efficient motorcycle on. That never happens. It solidifies suspicions that Something Weird is going on.) You exhale. You type out a reply to Era.

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You're awake and tense all the way to KL. Your phone battery is lower than you're comfortable with but you keep obsessively checking reddit and Waze to see if the roadblocks have spread out or started appearing elsewhere. So far they haven't, and the Ipoh roadblocks are still there, hundreds of km north of your current position. It's already dinner-time and the police are still manning the blocks, which excites discussion ("it has to be something really big to keep them there after office hours!").

Thank goodness for the Malaysian police, hopeless at doing anything except extracting coffee money from red-light speeders, even when all they're looking for is you. The bus stops at another rest stop, just outside the city proper, and you peer through the curtains to see if there are any police cars or unmarked vehicles around. There aren't any, and you dash at peak human speed to the toilets, and then to get yourself dinner and some snacks to eat on the bus.

Still no roadblocks. Era calms down as it gradually becomes clear that you've evaded at least that net. Che Mat is still gleeful about having been waved past a police roadblock, and Che Din is apparently haunting your old house now so he can get his smartphone back. (You send him apologies and he brushes them off. You'll have to make it back up to him somehow, if you ever get the chance.) Ben hasn't spoken to you all day.

You sit back in the chair, full of food and adrenaline. You peer out through the window with your ★★★★★ Sunglasses, and see nothing suspicious (though you wouldn't know how to identify if anything was suspicious anyway). Eventually the other passengers reboard the bus, too, having had their own meals, and the bus sets off.

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It's a little past midnight when you disembark from the bus, clutching your bag and somewhat numb from the overly powerful air-conditioning. Era is already there in the passenger seat of a little car parked by the roadside. In the driver's seat is her boyfriend. Era waves to you to hurry up and get in.

You toss your bag in the seat beside you and clamber in. It smells like food. Era holds out a Ramly burger to you, still in its paper wrap. You take it gratefully, even if it's incredibly late. "Astaghfirullah al'azim," she begins, as the car starts up to take you to her dormitory, and she takes fifteen minutes to finish lamenting. " You tahu ke tak roadblock at Ipoh ada lagi( did you know the roadblocks at Ipoh are still there) ?"

You shake your head. "Phone want to die already. Powerbank also dead. So data off."

Era rummages about in the glove compartment [3] and comes up with nothing. "Anyway! Roadblocks all still there. Dunno until when." She looks at you. " Apa jadi( what happened) ?"

"Hello," says Era's boyfriend in the ensuing silence. He's a large Malay man, his tight shirt with the deep V-neck accentuating his chest muscles and biceps. He's neatly moustached and bearded and bald, and he has a pair of glasses with no lenses in them on. He also has gold rings glinting in his ear and his nose. You are completely going to tease Era about that later. You don't often see people who look hotter in person than on Instagram.

"Hello," you say absently. "I'm Amanda."

"I'm Jeff," he says politely, if rather awkwardly. [4]

You turn back to Era. "I didn't even do anything!" you protest defensively. "You know me kan? I just stay at home playing games!"

Era frowns. " Then buat apa they roadblock you( then what are they trying to catch you by roadblocks for) ? Uncle aunty got say anything or not?"

You shake your head. "Last night delivery photo frame je." You dig it up out of your bag. "And some presents lah, but that one also not I do kan?"

Era sighs. "Anyway nampaknya( looks like) you still safe here. Tomorrow morning I got class but lunch time kita( we) [5] planning okay? I can't keep you at the dorm forever tau."

You nod. "Thanks ya."

She sighs. "What are friends for, kan?"

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[1] Omima Online does have a Christmas event. You were supposed to help them complete a bunch of those challenges today, because @green24701 already said he'd be out all day with his family and besides you have the AUNTY 24/7 limited edition fancy banner to live up to. Except not anymore.

[2] Wawasan Dua Puluh Dua Puluh, or Vision 2020, was a plan introduced way back in the early 90's for Malaysia to develop into a self-sufficient advanced nation. There was also a super patriotic song that people had to sing at Monday morning assemblies along with the national anthem and the school anthem. Suffice it to say that this ambition has not been achieved.

[3] Which has never contained gloves ever in the history of Malaysia.

[4] Which is a very un-Malay name.

[5] Both kami and kita mean "we" in Malay, but kami excludes the person being talked to while kita includes them. It's an elegant little thing and one of the parts of Malay I really like.

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2 SPINS AVAILABLE!

1 ROLL AVAILABLE!

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You're safe, for now, in Era's dorm room. You're not sure how long it'll take for the government to track you down here from Ipoh, but… this is not how you expected adulting to go.

You try to adjust to life at Hospital Melaka Nursing College.
[ ] Return to NEET life: you decide to just live indefinitely in a corner of Era's room while she gets food for the both of you.
- [ ] Era is stressed out and it is contagious.
- [ ] Dormitory security comes knocking.
[ ] Roam the campus: some students just fall asleep on campus benches or in tutorial rooms and you can too, while carefully roaming the campus in the day - and even slipping into some of the larger lectures.
- [ ] Somebody is preying on sleeping students.
- [ ] Somebody wants to get to know you better.
[ ] Trying to have it both ways, you decide to only sleep in Era's room and carefully roam the campus the rest of the time.
- [ ] You find a note slipped under Era's door, addressed to you.
- [ ] You run into somebody you used to know.