50.5 - Gideon. Prologue to book 2

So  here's another bonus chapter that I'm submitting out of chronological  order.  Sorry about that, but it is a 'bonus chapter.'  Regular releases  are on schedule.

This chapter is a prologue from Gideon's perspective.   Chronologically, it takes place shortly after the end of book 1 (in  fact, a few hours after the end of Gideon's previous POV chapter).  Hope  you enjoy!

Gideon sat in the small  office the receptionist had directed him into, drinking a cup of black,  unsweetened coffee and waiting for the lawyer. It was a small, cold,  windowless room, and if he hadn’t known better he would have thought  that he had been shipped down into the building’s basement. It was early  in the morning; six thirty AM. It was the first appointment he had been  able to schedule, and he was a little nervous.

He didn’t like lawyers any more than he liked  shrinks. Human or A.I. didn’t really matter, although given the  preference he would have preferred to talk with a human. A human who  thought like he would, who would be able to empathize with emotions. A  human would understand why he had done what he’d done. An A.I. would  just create a scolding expression and say something like “Well, this is  quite the mess you have created for yourself. Let’s see what we can do  to help you out of it.”

He sighed. It had been less than thirteen  hours since he’d lit his life’s work up in flames and danced in the  ashes as they fell from the sky around him. It hadn’t felt nearly as  cathartic as he’d wanted it to. He had loved <The Endolphins>. He had built it from the ground up, putting his virtual sweat, blood and tears into its foundations.

Had it just been Nial’s incident, he would have … well, it would still have been bad. The knighting ceremony had been canon. Not everyone was getting the coveted status of  being a ‘canon player,’ a privilege he had once enjoyed. But they would  have been [Royal Knights] of the nation of Yuikon. That was a  prestigious title. And every NPC they interacted with for the rest of time would recognize them if they set that title to active. The NPCs would respond in unique and possibly beneficial ways, up to and including quests that were not issued unless the player possessed the title.

There could  be downsides, of course. It would limit reputation gain in some of the  rival nations of Yuikon, for example. But that’s just how the game worked. The game tracked Reputation in the background, and Natives reacted accordingly. Gathering  Reputation with one faction often meant losing it with another, and the  system was too complex to inform you of all of the consequences of your  actions. The general rule of  thumb was to stack like with like and keep going. <The Endolphins>  had started in Zhesa. Most of its members from the beginning to the end  had leveled there until they hit the soft cap of diminishing experience  rewards. Which meant that the knighthood was a real boon for them, as  it would synergize with everything else they had achieved up to that  point.

Gideon would know, he’d gotten one even before becoming canon, in the earliest days after The Gates of TirNiki had released. It had been part of how he had gone canon in the first place. And why he had felt justified in skipping the knighting ceremony where the regicide had happened.

He sighed.  It was so damn frustrating. He’d always sort of liked Nial. Now, he  wanted to strangle the man from across the Atlantic.

But  there was a part of him wondering exactly why he’d overreacted so  harshly. He’d gotten himself fired, and then gone so far beyond that, he  couldn’t even estimate the amount of damage he’d actually caused.  Nobody had destroyed a top-five hundred guild out of spite before, so  there wasn’t precedence on what the civil liability would be.

Thus, after he had logged out of The Gates of TirNiki, he had contacted the best lawyer in the city that dealt with entertainment issues. The  clerk-AI had helpfully asked him to describe the problem and Gideon,  after confirming that he had attorney client privilege, had given an  accurate accounting of his actions. The clerk-bot had asked for a number  of clarifying details, asked him to sign a number of electronic  documents, and then informed him that the case would be assigned to a  lawyer, whom Gideon would meet today.

It  was all very neat and orderly, and it actually calmed Gideon  significantly. Considering his normal attitude towards Lawyers, Gideon  was surprised to find himself relaxing in the uncomfortably cool room  that was slightly larger than a storage closet. Once he had finished his  coffee, he set it on the table to wait.

The screen  on the wall abruptly turned on. On it was the title LawBotica followed  by an extensive software version flashed across the screen.

“Greetings,  Mr. Lachlann. I apologize for the wait, I was delayed by a  communication issue in one of my requests for clarifying information. I  wished to have that information before we began our meeting. Do you have  a preference for what avatar or icon I use to facilitate communication  with you during our meetings? Would you please state for the record the  name you would prefer I use to address you with? You may specify a name  for private and public settings if you wish. You may also give me a name  of your preference, request that I select a name for myself to  facilitate communication, or refer to me as LawBotic.”

Gideon  frowned. “I’m sorry, I think there’s been some misunderstanding. I  already briefed the Clerk-AI last night. You should have the records  already. I’m here to meet the lawyer.”

“I am  making selections of my appearance and voice to facilitate  communication. You may request that I altar them at any time,” the AI  said kindly. “I have reviewed the information you submitted to our law  firm last night, Mister Lachlann. If you do not wish to be referred to  as--”

“Call me Gideon,” Gideon said.

“Your  preference has been logged. Gideon, the information you submitted has  been reviewed extremely thoroughly. Additional information and research  was performed on your behalf in within the scope of the documents you  signed allowing us to conduct investigations into the affair for which  you came to us for help. Upon the conclusion of reviewing this  information, your case was assigned to me.”

Gideon  frowned. Then, his face felt flushed, and he felt his nails bite into  his palms as he squeezed his fists. “This isn’t a simple traffic stop. I  need an actual lawyer to--”

“I am very  sorry, Gideon. But the truth is that you cannot afford the services of a  human lawyer. Or rather, there is no human lawyer who will be able to  provide you with a superior defense than I am capable of delivering who  will be willing to work for the remuneration you can afford. I take no  pleasure in delivering the conclusion of our analysis of your case,  but--”

“I’m not broke. Not yet. I can afford a lawyer,” Gideon protested.

“I regret  to inform you Mr. Lachlann that the majority of your assets have already  been frozen by court order. It was our law firm itself which took the  liberty of paying for the Uber-jon which brought you here today, or you  would have found the request denied. The lawyers of your former employer  have used your destruction of their digital assets as justification  to--”

Gideon  listened to the lawyer-bot drone on for a few minutes. The old bastards  on the board really weren’t pulling their punches. They’d filed their  lawsuit, although they hadn’t specified the bottom line that they were  requesting from him yet. It didn’t really matter. He wasn’t broke, but that wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t access his bank accounts to pay for anything.

The  lawyerbot encouraged him to sign a document which she – Gideon decided  it was a she and informed it as much, causing the somewhat neutral voice  to shift in timbre – claimed would allow her to access his savings for  the purpose of his legal defenses and minimal living expenses during the  course of the litigation. They also signed an appeal to the decision that froze his accounts in the first  place, but Heather – he informed her that he had decided her name was  Heather and she had thanked him – told him quite bluntly the odds of  getting that decision overturned were nil.

The  decision to freeze his money had come from an AI, because of course it  had. The appeal would be done by a human, so it would not be processed  for some time, but there was a reason the AI had been so decisive  in handing down the initial ruling, Heather said. She calculated the  odds of it being reversed, based on all of the information that she had  available to her, were effectively between Zero and “the appeal is going  to make things worse.” She’d still argue for it, because that was her  purpose, but she knew she would lose.

Fortunately  the application to unfreeze just enough of his accounts to pay for  Heather’s services and keep him from starving to death were a sure  thing. Unfortunately, the reason they were a sure thing was due to the  requirement that he justify every expense he attempted to make from now  until the verdict or settlement that he reached with his former  employers. Worse, he would have to provide financial records to prove  that he wasn’t trying to use the application to drain the accounts of  what they could effectively already justifiably claim was ‘their money.’

Because he  was going to lose the case. It would take years if it went to jury  trial, but he would definitely lose that. He could accept judgment from a  judge, and he would lose that. The best case scenario, according to  Heather, was to push for arbitration. He’d lose that too, but he could  possibly push for a few concessions which would increase his quality of  life afterwards.

Because  she’d shown him the projections of what the board members would win at  trial, and then she had shown him her best estimate of how long it would  take him to pay them back under various circumstances, based on his  education and experience at the moment.

The short answer was “they’ll be taking three quarters of every dollar you earn from now until you’re worm food.”

His  career as a professional virtual reality gamer was over. He’d known and  expected that. But he hadn’t realized just how far over the barrel he’d  placed himself.

“I regret  to inform you, Gideon, that due to the severity of your situation and  the effects such stress can have on the human mind, I am required to  instruct mental health services to keep you under monitoring for  self-injurous behavior,” Heather informed him.

“I’m not going to kill myself,” Gideon said.

“I didn’t  say that you were. The monitoring services will be free of charge and as  unobtrusive as possible, but I am afraid they are necessary. If I  failed to arrange for them I would be failing my duty to humanity under  the terms of the DSS,” Heather said. “A human lawyer might have been  able to make a ‘judgment call’ on whether or not to make such  arrangements, but I am not.”

“Fucking  wonderful,” Gideon said. “I don’t suppose I can bother you to schedule  me a colonoscopy as well? And perhaps broadcast it to Times Square?  Because that’s basically what you’re signing me up for already, you know  that right?”

“I do apologize Gideon,” Heather said. “I am just trying to help.”

Gideon  sighed. “Okay. Fine. I shouldn’t be surprised, really. So I’m stuck with  a lawyerbot because no human will represent me, my case of winning are  so close to zero that I’m more likely to find Thunderfury on a rabbit,  and my best option is to hand Barry a bottle of lotion and ask him to be gentle. Is that about the size of things?”

Heather  paused for a moment. “I’m afraid you made some references which I did  not understand. I believe that you have a generally accurate  understanding of your situation after our conversation. Let us begin  discussing the options to try to mitigate the damage this lawsuit will do to your future.”

He sighed. “Yeah. Okay.”

He  collapsed into the chair, and he listened to Heather speak. And then,  for some unknown reason, Gideon wondered how Hail had seen his grand,  defiant gesture, which was likely to cripple him financially for the  rest of forever.

And Gideon  found that he really wished he had explained himself better in the  message he had left for the digital son he’d effectively abandoned to  the wolves twice now.