Chapter 15
Tom was right, his mom was thrilled to have us visit the retirement community where she volunteered.
Since Mawmaw didn't want me in Chinatown while they were still dealing with the burglary, my parents didn't have any objections to me spending time volunteering at an old folks' home.
As such, Margaret happily picked me up from my house Tuesday afternoon with Tom in tow. She then ferried us to, of all places, Shady Acres Care Home. When Margaret had first mentioned it to me years ago I just about had a heart attack. Even now I still felt a little weird about it.
Still, it seemed to be a fairly normal retirement community home. Which honestly was probably why Loki had/would pick it as the place to stick Odin. Just like the retirement homes I'd seen before, it had the same strange feeling, a mix between feeling like a hospital and feeling like a family restaurant, with a side of church basement community center.
I wrinkled my nose at the musty rose… air freshener? Perfume? That tried and failed to cover up the scent of whatever cleaning agent the home used as Margaret signed everyone in. I knew it wasn't real because the roses in the vase next to the front desk were fabric. There were a few carpets on the vinyl floors, which I found surprising. I'd have thought there wouldn't be any to avoid tripping hazards or to make it easier to get around in wheelchairs.
"Okay!" Margaret smiled at us as she turned around. "That's all of us signed in. Remember to wear your visitor badges! Now, I'm going to be at the chapel leading the weekly bible study. The tv room and community rooms are down that hall. Why don't you play some games with the folks here? They're very nice."
"Of course," I said as Tom nodded, eyes glazed over.
"Once I'm done with the bible study, I'll see if Mr. Warren is available." Margaret smiled. "And Jackie? I think you'd be a great detective. I'm sure Mr. Warren will have lots of advice for you.
We waved as she headed down a corridor. Then Tom turned to me.
"Do you actually want to be a police officer when you grow up?" he asked.
"Oh hell no. But it's a great excuse to interview retirees."
"I guess so. Although being a police officer would be a great way to deal with the bad guys." I rolled my eyes at Tom's naivety as he continued talking. "Let's head to the community room. It's less busy than the tv room, but people talk more."
"You would know," I said as I followed his lead.
The community room wasn't far, only two doors down. It was cheerier than the entranceway. There was more art on the walls and comfy chairs. Someone had clearly tried to make this a comfortable place. There was a group of elderly women knitting in a circle in one corner and a man napping in armchair by a shelf full of books and board games against the back wall.
One of the women noticed us and nudged her friend. "Look, visitors! Who are you dears?"
"I'm Jackie and this is Tom," I said.
"And who are you visiting?" she asked with a smile.
"Mr. Warren," I told her. "I want to be a police detective when I grow up and Tom's mom says he used to be one."
The little old lady paused a bit, clearly debating what to say. "Ah, Mr. Warren," she said eventually. "He doesn't get many visitors. He can be a bit much at times."
"He's a bitter and cantankerous old fossil," said another woman with a snort.
"Sherryl!" scolded the first woman.
"If he doesn't have any good advice, then do you?" I asked the group.
"Most of us were housewives, nurses, and schoolteachers dear," said the first woman. "But I suppose we all had to solve our own little mysteries at times…"
She went on to describe a time when her son took the family car out and lost it in Manhattan back in the 70s and how they miraculously managed to find it again. Other ladies chimed in with their own stories, some from home, some from school, some from work.
They were good storytellers, and definitely appreciated the audience. By the time Margaret had come to get us both Tom and I had laughed our heads off at one woman's recounting of a very smart dog, a very dumb man, and one apparently delicious incredibly expensive steak.
"Tom, Jackie!" Margaret said as she spotted us. "I'm glad you're getting along with everyone. If you're ready, so is Mr. Warren."
Tom and I thanked the ladies then followed Margaret out. She took us up the elevator to a room on the second floor, 206.
Margaret knocked on the door. "Come in," a gruff voice shouted.
We opened the door and walked in.
The room inside was rather bare and a bit messy. Aside from some wilted flowers in a vase on the counter and a bland watercolor print on the wall, the only decorations were a shelf filled with faded pictures of policemen and a very shiny NYPD badge.
Mr. Warren was a shriveled old man whose face looked set in a permanent frown. Although his head was bald on top he had rather impressive white sideburns in a mutton chop look.
He glared at us, then slammed his cane on the ground with a crack.
Tom jumped. I didn't.
Mr. Warren pointed at Tom. "You'll need better nerves than that if you want to become a policeman, boy," he said.
"Ah, Mr. Warren?" Margaret said. "Jackie's the one who wants to be a police officer." She pointed at me.
"Hmph, a girl?" He eyed me. I stared evenly back at him. Unfortunately for Mr. Warren, I didn't actually care about his opinion of me.
After a moment Mr Warren nodded. "Well, at least you got more steel in your spine than the boy," he said. "But boy! If you really value your friend, you'll follow her in. The force is no place for the weak willed, and the bonds with your fellow police are the strongest you'll ever have."
"Jackie is my best friend and nothing will ever change that," Tom said, slightly confused by determined.
"Good! Hold on to that bond. Only rats like
Leuci or
Serpico break the code that binds together the force."
Mr. Warren gestured behind him, towards the bookshelf. "I spent 20 years as a police officer before those two rats tore it apart! The men, my brothers, that they ruined. Do you have any idea how many good men committed suicide because of those two?" He glanced between us. "Well do you?" he shouted.
"No sir," I said blandly.
"Too many," he said with another bang of his cane.
"Ah, Mr. Warren," said Margaret, trying to get the conversation under control. "Perhaps you could tell Jackie what it is like to be a policeman?"
"I'm very interested in how you went about investigating crimes," I added.
Mr. Warren snorted. "Investigations, the fancy part, of course," he muttered. "It's not just the investigations that matter girl! It's walking the streets! It's knowing every nock and cranny of your precinct, so when the rats try to hide you can sniff them out."
He leaned down to peer me in the eye. "You gotta use everything in your arsenal to catch the criminals. Because every one that escapes is another crime to be committed. They're rats! RATS!" he shouted. "They run and scurry in the dark! Breed like no tomorrow! But if you pull one in they'll moan and cry like newborn babes about their innocence!"
I could see Margaret start to get uncomfortable with the way Mr. Warren was ranting. "You have to trap them! Catch them in their lies! Stick a gun in their hand so you can find the switchblade in their pockets!"
I felt Margaret put a hand on my shoulder and start to pull me away.
"Oh dear!" she said with false cheerfulness. "I forgot something in my car. Better go grab that. Say goodbye kids!"
And with that she quickly pulled Tom and I outside and shut the door. Then we speed walked to the stairs as I heard a thump from Mr. Warren's door.
Once we were on the first floor again Margaret turned to us. "I'm sorry," she said. "Sometimes when people like Mr. Warren get very old, their brains don't work quite right so their emotions get very strong and they act a bit off. I promise, most police officers are not like that."
"You mean he has dementia?" I asked.
"Possibly," said Margaret.
Tom was still staring up the stairs like he had since we got down.
"Wow," he said. "That was…"
"Yeah," I agreed, then turned to Margaret. "Did you need to do anything else or should we head home?"
"I think home would be best. Just let me tell the head nurse about Mr. Warren and we can head out."
…
"Well, that was a bust," I said with a sigh once we'd gotten to my room.
"Yeah, that was kinda scary," Tom said as he sat down in my desk chair.
"Still, he might have given some good advice. We do need to trust each other a lot. Just, I have to wonder how legal some of his suggestions were. You remember what he said about the putting guns in people's hands?"
"Yeah?"
"That's very illegal. Very, very illegal. So we should probably like, treat his advice with caution."
"So we shouldn't use everything we have?" Tom looked at me skeptically. "Aren't we trying to save the world?"
"More like, take careful stock of everything we have to use before using it. We don't want to save the world by making it a worse place. Like when Batman tried to save the world by making a killer robot police force." Or Tony Stark with Ultron.
"I don't recall that one," Tom said.
"The name of the head robot was Brother Eye. When I get a laptop you can look it up."
"Okay. So what do we have?" he asked.
"Close to 700 points, about 150 dollars, one telekinetic, and the ability to hide secrets from everybody."
"Anything else? Like, is there anything else you bought earlier than forgot like with the Healing Bamboo?"
"Healing potions, but those are disposable by nature. Oh, and a necklace." I headed over to my desk to try and find the quartz pendant I'd bought so many years ago.
"What does the necklace do?"
"Nothing. It's just blank material for…" Wait. Could that…? I started rifling through my desk faster.
"Jackie? Did you think of something?"
"Maybe… Found it!" I pulled the pendant out.
"It doesn't look like much," Tom said.
"I know. But if I'm right, I might be able to use it for magic." The first Dr. Strange movie had implied that the various pieces of "occult knowledge" like chakras and such found in New Age shops actually had a basis in real magic, at least in this universe. And I did have a casual interest in occultism in my past life…
"Ooo, what kind of magic?"
"Basically fortune telling via pendulum. I can think of two ways this might work: first, grabbing a map and swinging the pendulum over it to see where the Healing Bamboo is. Second, setting up a Yes/No map and asking yes/no questions until I narrow down what I want to know. But I'll need a map of Chinatown for the first one."
"Why are you searching for the Healing Bamboo first and not the bad guys? And how do you know it's still in Chinatown?"
"Because I don't know who the bad guys are, and everything I know about scrying says that the stronger the mental image the better this will work. As for if it's still in Chinatown? I don't know. Actually, I should probably try the second method first to try and see if it's still in Chinatown. But I still want a map; if this works, there's a lot I can use scrying for."
I headed towards my door. "I'm going to talk to my dad, see if I can use the printer to print out a map of Chinatown."
"Cool! I still have like 100 points so I'm going to check out the store and see if there are anything that looks good."
I gave him a thumbs up as I left.
"Hey Dad?" I asked as I poked my head into his home office.
"Hay is for horses, not dads," he said with a smile.
I rolled my eyes. "Very funny," I said dryly. "Can I borrow the printer?"
"What for?"
"I want to print out a map of Chinatown, to match the one I have of our neighborhood."
"Hmm. I might actually have a copy of the map as a touristy thing I got from your aunt."
"Ooo, that's perfect. Can I have it?" An actual map might have a greater connection to Chinatown than one I just printed off.
"Sure, if I can find it."
I helped him search his desk for a few minutes before we found the map. It was a cheap brochure, but it was perfect.
"Thanks Dad!"
I headed back to my room, where Tom was deep in thought.
"Hey Jackie, look at this," he said as I walked in.
"What is it?" I took a look over his shoulder. He had the store page open to the powers section, of course. In fact, he had it opened to several cultivation methods. I admittedly hadn't looked the closest at that section. As crazy as wuxia could get all the cheap options in the store just made you stronger and I'd been looking for more bang for my buck.
"There's this cultivation thing. A set of five… not sure what to call it. Methods? Skills? Each one is 100 points."
It looked like it was based on the Chinese elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
"The description says that these are 'methods for improving and strengthening the body', so I'm pretty sure these are ways to get strong." He tilted his head and grumbled. "I thought these were ways to control the elements at first."
I laughed. "You know if we save up to get you telekinesis you can use that to pretend to control the elements," I said. "And yes they're ways to make yourself stronger, but Tom, do you know what cultivation means?"
"Not really," he admitted.
"It's… kinda like building up your internal energy, or qi, to make yourself stronger. It's a lot more common in the east than the west. Basically, it's kinda like magic martial arts."
"That's perfect!" said Tom. "We can beat the ninja at their own game!"
"I'm not certain a 100-point cultivation method will do all that much, especially since you can only buy one."
"But we have over 600 points!" Tom complained. "We should get the full thing!"
"If we get the full thing I don't know when we'll have enough points to get you telekinesis. Which would you prefer?"
Tom thought for a moment, then sighed. "…the telekinesis." He shook himself. "So which one should we get?"
"Well, if I remember my Chinese elements right, water probably has to do with flexibility, fire with… I don't know strength? Vitality? Metal has to do with being unyielding, so maybe endurance, earth has to do with harmony, so not sure what that would do, and wood has to do with growth."
I tilted my head. "I think wood would be a good idea. We're still growing, so getting something that helps with growth might make us grow… faster? Better? Something more."
"Well, if getting fire won't help me control fire," Tom said. "Then something that makes me super taller faster sounds good. It would definitely be good for basketball at least."
"I think that it might do that, I don't know that it will do that," I said.
"Still," Tom said.
"Alright, let me just double check a few things with the System first," I said. "System?"
[Yes Host?]
"If we get the wood cultivation method, will that just permanently empower one of us or do we like, get a book to study?"
[It's your choice! The standard is to just empower the buyer. You can choose to get a book instead, the price is the same.]
"Will we actually be able to learn it from the book?"
[Learning capabilities of hosts may vary. If you don't want to gamble, then choose the direct empowerment option!]
"Okay. Will anyone be able to tell that we are using some kind of cultivation method?"
[The more your cultivation develops, the easier it will become for others trained in such a fashion to notice it, unless you pursue a concealment ability.]
My eyes narrowed. "How. Easily?"
[…the 500-point five elements cultivation method is one of the weakest cultivation methods available in the shop. It does not cause a great deal of noticeable effects, even at full development. The effects just starting out would be near impossible for someone to notice, even if they were sensitive.]
"Enough that anyone who notices might think it's a fluke?"
[If their senses aren't extremely high, yes.]
I still frowned. I didn't like this.
"Jackie…" I looked over at Tom. "They're my points, okay? I really want this."
I sighed. "You should probably get the book then. Given the burglary, we know that there is someone who can probably sense whatever energy we might give off if it's strong enough. So, let's at least try to figure it out slowly instead of jumping to max level and not knowing what that means. Honestly, maybe I should skip learning this, at least until after this summer when I won't spend so much time in Chinatown or until I can also afford a concealment method."
Tom's face did something funny after hearing that, as if he wasn't certain whether to be happy or upset.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Nothing," he said.
I hesitated but chose not to pry.
"Okay. Let's purchase the book and see how big it is."
Tom did so, and it turned out to not be a book exactly, but a scroll.
"Huh," I said, as Tom unfurled it. Inside was a mixture of writing, fortunately in English, and diagrams of the body showing both some kind of internal energy and specific movements to do. "That's… kinda cool."
"Yeah…" said Tom with a furrowed brow as he tried to read the dense writing.
"If you want to take it home," I said, "I can show you how to turn an old book into a hidden storage compartment."
"That would be cool," he said.
After trying to read over his shoulder for a few more minutes, I clapped my hands.
"Okay!" I said. "So now we have close to 600 points, about 150 dollars, one telekinetic, a potential scrying tool, a cultivation method, and the ability to hide secrets from everybody, against whoever robbed my uncle's store. Watch out world, here we come." This was going to either be fantastic or a complete disaster.
"And we got one more thing too!" Tom said brightly.
I blinked and looked at him. "What is that?" I asked.
Tom grinned. "Poop!" he said.
I telekinetically threw a stuffed animal at his head.
...
AN: Regarding occultism and Dr. Strange: There are some complaints that the first MCU Dr. Strange movie was kinda a bit too into the "mystical east" angle and white saviorism. Now I don't really know enough about it to comment about that (Polygon has great article if you are interested), but I do have something to say about
this scene in the movie when Dr. Strange first meets the Ancient One. During the scene the Ancient One shows Dr. Strange a diagram of the chakras and he comments that he's seen it before in a gift shop. Now, this implies two things. First, that genuine occult knowledge can be found in regular stores and in the New Age stuff we see in today's society. This is why Jackie thinks she might be able to use the occult knowledge she has from her past life to figure out scrying with a pendulum. However, the other thing about chakra's is that the New Age perception of them was created and popularized by
Helena Blavatsky, whose occult work, in particular
Root Races, has also been linked as a inspiration for Nazi occult ideology as well as many racial occult conspiracy theories today such as
Celestial Seasoning's UFO cult. As such, it should be regarded as highly suspect occult knowledge and honestly I think that the writers for the show just threw it in as window dressing without thinking of the implications.
Regarding cultivation: no, this isn't going to turn into a cultivation novel. It's a method that's good for gaining super strength, but Jackie isn't terribly interested in learning to hit things hard and she's creative and tenacious enough to figure out methods that work better for her. I included cultivation because a) it was the method that the original system used and b) I'm really interested in the teachable aspects of it. Like, cultivation is in theory a method that just about anyone could use to gain superpowers. In MCU we've seen all this furor about the super soldier serum. Well, now Jackie has her hands on a teachable method of giving someone like low level super soldier abilities. It won't be for a while but once various factions realize that cultivation is a thing well... it'll definitely get interesting.
