The park, the park is the reflection of…expenses done by the local goverment to pretend to care about the younger generations, all the while giving an out to horny couples, and an out to overstimulated children to play and waste energy while their parents sit under the canopy of trees and fantasize about simpler times when they hadn't made a mistake that brewed for nine months and ended up tying their dreams and hopes for the future to a money sink that would remain with them at least eighteen years, sometimes more depending on their level of care and how weak their consciousness was.

"What are you thinking, Shorty?" [Big Sister] asked as she walked beside Ale and poked at her from the side as she handed her an ice cream.

Ale took it and sampled it, chocolate and mint ice cream…It wasn't that bad.

"Nothing, was thinking about what was the original meaning to make a park," Ale answered, the chocolate mint ice cream wasn't as bad as she had guessed, perhaps she also was finally diverging further away?

"It was made to have you kiddos play around," [Big Sister] said, shaking her head, "There is nothing too complex about it, any other use it has was not the intended one, and mostly done by the grown-ups later."

So there was other uses as Ale had guessed, not that it changed much of what she planned to do. That is, nothing much. Perhaps if she had come before coming to realization about what she was and what she needed to do, then it would be different, alas, it was not the case, and now she was here, now.

The question was… What to do, [Big Sister] obviously brought her here with the intention of having her spend time and enjoy it, Ale was even tempted to fulfill that, she did like running around, it was exciting to feel the wind on her face while she was running from place to place, jumping, vaulting and doing flips, it was probably one of the moments where she had the most fun, ever.

"What are we?" Ale ended up asking as she ate the last parts of her chocolate-mint ice cream, "Really…what is [Humanity], [Core Users]....What are we really?"

"Philosophical are we?" [Big Sister] said eating her own ice cream in one bite, "We are people doing their best in this god forsaken world, doing their best in their own ways. Humans, Core Users, Beast Cores, Insect Cores…We all just do our best with the limited time we have, nothing changes really, no matter who they are or what they do, they all end up the same."

That…."Is not the kind of answer I expected," Ale said sighing, she had expected either something simpler or something overly complex, perhaps a tirade about [Humanity] and what made her [Human], instead she got that?

"I guessed as much, you seem to be the smarter of the three." [Big Sister] said with a smile, "Don't get me wrong, I am not throwing shade at your bigger form, she seems smart…in her own way."

…. Hadn't [Big Sister] only seen Alexandra either drunk, asleep or fumbling around? How was that someone smart?

"But you seem to be the most grounded of the three, the one who seems to be maturing the fastest…" [Big Sister] sighed at that, "You need to slow down, enjoy your own childhood, even if it is shorter, or even if it feels fake."

Even if it was fake?

"You will miss these moments, you will think it was easier and simpler before, trust me on that. Life will only suck so much more," [Big Sister] sighed yet again, "I sure as hell wish I had spent more time enjoying my own childhood… And now it's gone… No hope or anything left of that… Not here… Not anywhere…"

Well, that sounded like there was something to it, perhaps something that Ale could look into? Perhaps something to explore later?

"But we are different," Ale decided to say in the end, "Myself, Alexandra, Alexa…we are not like everyone else…"

"No, you are not." [Big Sister] said nodding, "You see that one?"

And then she pointed at a random kid playing in the monkey bars, "He looks around your age right? He is also different, he weighs roughly half of what he should with that complexion." [Big Sister] commented, Ale roughly scanned him with her sensory outputs, that is to say, she analyzed how he moved, the weight he seemed to project upon the sand, the mana emissions he emitted.

[Weight projection… Body is at least ¾ lighter than it should.

[Body presents mana emissions consistent with Core Users.]

[Body movements consistent with someone who is continuously aware of his surroundings.]

[No evidence that shows Human Designation: Skye Venti should have known that the observation target was special.]

Sure enough, [Big Sister] was right.

"What about it?" Ale said, trying to sound nonchalant, as far as she knew, [Big Sister] indeed had no way of knowing that the kid was lighter than he should be.

"Well, he is a good example. Only way for someone like him to be lighter is for them to be a Core User," [Big Sister] said with a shrug, "That means that his life is forever changed, depending in when he triggered the more it changed, instead of playing around with friends he is probably being monitored, either by his parents or his handlers."

Handlers?

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"Handlers?" Ale asked confused, that was one phrase she hadn't heard quite yet. Or she didn't think so.

"The people in charge of him, they come to you with promises of success, a shining career as a hero…Or as a Villain, depending on your background." [Big Sister] said with distaste, "The thing is, they make you sign a contract that gives them full control over you, and since they sign it before you take on a mask…It becomes binding, legally speaking your only option is to work for them."

"Legally speaking?" Ale asked, that sounded… oddly specific.

"Yeah, we don't follow the law remember?" [Big Sister] said with the biggest grin of all of them, "We are villains for a reason…"

"Right…But what does that have to do with me?" Ale asked, confused, that had been a weird tangent.

"Well, do you think he worries about those things?" [Big Sister] pointed out, the kid in question had finished another round on the monkey bars while the other kids around him cheered as he moved from bar to bar using only one hand. "Does it look like he worries about what makes him Human or not? If he is less or more than his peers?"

"He seems to be enjoying the unfair advantage of weighing less than a third of what he should," Ale said pointing out his shenanigans, "But besides that….not really?"

"He probably should, if he is under a group of handlers he will get scolded, if his parents are the ones caring for him…then they may never return to this park…He is showing too much, the people who know what to look for will probably make a note about him." [Big Sister] scanned the people around with her eyes as she spoke, her eyes staying a few extra seconds on a couple of humans.

Ale could not see anything that made them different from the rest, if anything, a couple of them seemed to be extra mundane, was that the tell-tale?

"But instead he is just enjoying the moment, he probably will either nullify whatever Core Power he is using when they end up playing, if he can. Otherwise he may put extra weight in his steps to compensate, either way. He knows that he will pay for what he is doing right now." [Big Sister] explained, "But right now? Right now he is enjoying…and you should too."

And there it was.

"My [Core Power] makes that impossible," Ale pointed out, "What am I supposed to do? Make tendrils and show how I can do what he did without even using a hand? Transform myself into copies of them? Change their bodies? That would even be more obvious than what he is doing."

"Not that," [Big Sister] said shaking her head, "You should be having fun."

"......Alexa is the one who wishes to be happy." Ale said in a small voice, "I…I didn't even wish to be here."

"Don't say that," [Big Sister] said in a frosty cold tone, "Never, ever say that…"

"....Sorry…" Ale said taking half a step away from [Big Sister], her demeanour had changed so much that Ale feared and attack would come.

"...No, I am sorry about that… You… You probably didn't mean it," [Big Sister] sighed, "But I stand behind the intent, never say that you didn't wish to be here, people would be sad if you disappeared. I would be sad, your brother would be sad, Golem, Billy… Even Eleanore and Vulcanus would be sad if you disappeared. Alexa would too."

Alexa….yeah, she would definitely be sad, she would need to start dealing with more things she didn't want to deal with after all, that had been the whole reason why she had been born. The reason that Ale Saintsworths was born, was to protect and fight for Alexa after all.

"So…I should just…go there and socialize then?" Ale said pointing at the kids, "Really? I could probably kill everyone in this park within half an hour and disappear into the city, and no one would find me."

"Everyone?" [Big Sister] raised an eyebrow at her.

"...almost everyone," Ale conceded, not because she didn't think that killing [Big Sister] would be hard, but because she probably wouldn't do it. Not unless [Big Sister] truly became an enemy… And even then, she probably would have a hard time doing it, Skye Venti was a woman whose measure Ale didn't truly have. Her [Core] seemed more complex than what she had given thought.

"That's more like it, now go and have some fun." [Big Sister] said pushing Ale toward the monkey bars, "Go on, the other kids are already leaving and that one seems to be getting sadder by the second, go and make some friends."

Ale…did notice the other kids were running towards their parents, the older humans coming and picking up the highly excitable kids, leaving the kid with a third of his weight standing there alone.

"Hello," Ale waved at the kid who turned to look in her direction, eyes filled with hope and relief.

"Hello! I am Bryan. What's your name?" The kid said in a barrage of words that came as fast as if he had practiced them everyday.

"Hello, I am Ale." Ale said with a shrug, "I came with my [Big Sister], how about you?"

"Oh…" The kid, Bryan, seemed to stumble at the simpler question, "I am with…my guardian…"

At that, the kid pointed to a bench where a single man with a haircut too neat and short stood sitting, in front of him a piece of newspaper, his build was….

Strong, was a word that Ale could use to describe it, another was something along the lines of 'OH MY FRICKING GOD, HOW MUCH MUSCLE CAN YOU PACK INTO A SINGLE HUMAN BEING?' Or something along those lines.

Ale for one was not good with that type of being, so she decided to not look too much into that, and merely save the memory for Alexandra, just to see if the older woman would use those words to describe the caretaker or not.

"Hmm….He doesn't look too much like you, so I guess he isn't related?" Ale said with a knowing nod, [Big Sister] had been right about that.

"Your [Big Sister] also doesn't look like you either," The kid said hmping, that was interesting response.

"She said I could call her like that," Ale defended her honor, "We are that close, she found I had an annoying asshole Big Brother, so decided that I could do best with her."

"Well mine is like an Elder Brother, a cool elder brother who takes me to the park and he promised that we would go to eat after I was tired of playing around!" The Bryan fella said pointing at the muscle mass, "What about you?"

"She bought me ice cream, chocolate mint flavored." Ale said with a smug face, "And if I ask her, she probably will invite me to dinner too, and if not, I can use my allowance."

"....you get an allowance?" Bryan asked, "...how much?"

"Alexandra left me around a hundred A-Dollars, why?" Ale said shrugging, "I could probably use more if needed, but only in emergencies."

"....A Hundred bucks?" Bryan said with stars in his eyes, not literal ones of course, "...You could buy so many gifted memberships in ATube…."

"I am more of a streamer kind of girl, people sub to me, not the other way around." Ale said shaking her head, "Besides, the good stuff is in Ashiver, you can share emoticons with other streamers unlike ATube."

That annoyed Ale to no end, she had so many cutes emotes, but she couldn't use them in other streams unlike how it was in Ashiver, the name sucked of course, it was a subsidiary of the Saintsworths, those couldn't name something creatively for their life. It was probably encoded in their genetic code or something.

Actually, Ale had access to that [Blueprint], she could confirm if it was like that or not. Not that she was going to check on that right now… Right now she had more important things to do.

"Wait, you are a streamer?!?!?" Bryan said surprised, "What do you stream? What's your channel? Follower count?"

"I am a variety streamer, like all big streamers, I am at xXx-AleFallenAngel-xXx." Ale answered nonchalantly, "I recently made it to 4,000 subscribers, but some unsubscribed, probably because I celebrated early…I got a screenshot of it tho."

"Oh….you aren't that big," Bryan said deflating slighty, "I thought you were popular."

".... I'll have you know that getting 4000 subscribers is kind of a big deal, it means you have at least been entertaining enough to get four thousand people to look at what you do." Ale said mildly miffed at the disregard for one of her greatest achievements.

"I mean…yeah but… it's because you are a girl, everyone likes to watch girls." Bryan said shaking his head, Ale really wanted to hit this kid in the face right about now.

"What about you?" Ale decided to change the subject, "Do you do anything interesting besides dismissing other people's achievements, cheating using your [Core Power] to impress other kids?"

"I like to spend time in the -" Bryan said as he was about to answer, only for his face to turn white as a cloud, "What did you ask?"

"What do you do?" Ale said innocently.

"....You….how do you know I have a [Core Power]?" Bryan asked.

[Warning, detecting spike of Mana within current conversation target.]

[Mana wavelength extending to the surrounding area.]

[Mana wavelengths seem to be interacting with both the atmosphere and mana and the fabric of reality.]

Ale really wanted to know how that worked, how was she getting information about a [Core Power] that could interface with reality? or well, fabric of reality. What kind of subset or derivated power of [Deconstruction] and [Construction] allowed her to know that?

"Of course I do," Ale said nodding with an evil smile, "You just confirmed it."

Yeah…this thing about bullying kids…

This was fun. At least when it wasn't done to Alexa or her….hypocrite? Of course she was, she was a Villain…or well, a minion.

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