Legacy of Forgotten Times 94 Soap operas are still a thing

Another day has passed. Tomorrow, Linri was going meet his ragtag bunch of 'friends'. The problem was that first he had to plan in their break in and then he also had to think about how to treat them. I mean yeah: they were also characters from the RP club, but the game version of Linri could not really be called close to them. Even Max himself was not really close with their players. The only reason he picked them was that they had a mercenary background so they were easier to contact and their abilities were perfect for a break in.

"Take a seat the eggs will be ready in a minute!" His mom called Linri merrily. Linri just yawned in response and pulled back a chair to sit while scratching his head.

Lately, Linri started to wake up feeling tired. It was probably because of his frequent visits to the 'dream world'. He didn't know how many times he had said this to himself, but the 'dream world' was taking a toll on him so he had to find a solution as soon as possible. He could feel his own conscious deteriorate with each visit. If his calculations were correct and there weren't any mistakes with this speed, he only had about a year before his mind is gone completely.

"Here's your eggs. I will go call your father and Jaime." Lyra put the fried eggs in front of him and went upstairs to wake up the two lazy bums.

Linri took a bite from his toast. So yeah, 1 year. Then he won't be able to wake up ever again. It will be like he was in a coma, but he won't have any chance to wake up one day miraculously.

Okay, to sum it up, his body was in shambles and it could fall apart at any minute and his mind was slowly wilting away. He had a solution for the first one: at least that was a plus.

"Morning." Jaime pulled the chair next to him while also yawning before she looked in her plate which was empty.

"Where is my breakfast?" Linri just pushed his own eggs in front of her. The toast was enough for him, at least for now.

"Thanks, but... aren't you gonna have breakfast?" Jaime asked while stuffing her mouth with eggs.

"I can wait. I still have my toast." Linri answered while taking a bite from his toast. The taste was too bland so he decided to spread butter on top of it.

"Oh? Okay then *munch* it's your breakfast." Jaime said in between her bites.

"So what's the plan today?" Linri asked out of boredom. He was also curious about what Jaime did in her past time. Lately, they were not really hanging out together. Linri was dealing with his own heist so it was not like he could also keep track of what Jaime was doing all the time.

"I don't know, training?"

"Why does that sound like a question?" Linri finished the last bit of his toast, but he was still hungry, so he just took a bite from the eggs in Jaime's plate. She didn't protest as these were his eggs in the first place. Also, they have been living together more than a month now: stealing from each other was the norm by now.

"Oh? So you two love birds are feeding each other now?" Lyra asked upon seeing the scene before her. Linri and Jaime's act of sharing food could be considered normal, but that doesn't make them immune against teasing.

"She wishes we were love birds." Linri said while pointing towards Jaime who didn't even attempt to answer him in any way.

"Anyway mom, your child is hungry! Feed me!"

"Pfft! Why are you so energetic in the morning? I guess all those morning trainings made you more athletic. You used to look so lethargic, but look at you now!" Lyra bantered with Linri while frying up another batch of eggs. That was when Arkady came in and sat down at his chair. His face was baby bottom smooth, aside from his goatee of course. So I guess he shaved this morning and that must be why he was last to arrive.

"I heard someone mention my name. Were you guys talking about how awesome I am?" Arkady joked while waiting for his breakfast.

"No, I was actually questioning how could a woman as smart as mom marry you? I mean, she said you threatened to kill her family if she didn't agree to marry her. I never knew you were such a savage, dad, and before you ask I am not talking about the good kind of savage."

"Of course not! If anything it was her family that tried to kill me before the marriage."

"Yeah, whatever, I don't think anyone would want to kill a photographer as lame as you, dad." Linri said sarcastically. Lyra was laughing brightly while putting down his fried eggs which Linri started to eat immediately.

"Is that so? You little brat! I will see how you will handle today's training then!" Arkady complained grumpily after Lyra put down his breakfast and pulled a chair for herself as well.

"Dad, no! Please have mercy! You are the coolest guy in the world! I was just joking. It was just a joke." Linri feigned licking Arkady's boots.

"Come on now. Stop your chit chat and eat your food now. Look at Jaime and how she is eating her food gracefully?" Lyra pointed at Jaime who was wolfing down her food.

"Huh?" Jaime looked up from her plate to see everyone looking at the way she ate.

Then they all started to laugh. After breakfast was over it was time for training. Linri had already reached the beginner level in the 2 of the stances Arkady taught. Mountain stance for balance and Water stance for deflecting attacks.

Today's stance was fire. Linri was really expectant for this stance: after all, his main elements were fire and ice. Even after he evolves his primary ability, Fire was still going to be the main ability while ice will be absorbed into it. If there were any elements that Linri had an affinity towards, it was going to be Fire.

"So son, tell me, when you think of fire what is the first word that comes to your mind?" Arkady asked him a question. It wasn't really weird as every stance was incorporating their respective element's qualities.

"Destruction." Linri's answer was plain and simple. Of course, he could give cheesy answers like life or sun but that was not really his style. Fire was fire, and fire burns your enemies and yourself if you were not careful with it.

"Simple and direct. A good textbook answer but why exactly that word? Why not just say burn, flames or spark?"

"Because there is only destruction left at the wake of flames. We can only control how much we want to destroy, not the destruction itself." Linri answered after pondering a little.

"Yes, control, we can control the destruction, but not stop it. You see, this stance is all about control. It is about attacking the specific points in your opponent's body while focusing your power into a single point sort of like a spear."

"But aren't focusing your power into a single point is the speciality of wind element?"

"That's true and not true at the same time. If you ask me, the wind is based more on speed, focusing their attacks is only the side effect of that. When it comes to explosive potential in a single attack, fire is always the strongest element. It is not always just mindless destruction."

Then Arkady started to demonstrate the Fire stance which Linri started to copy. However, even if he could copy the form, he could not really focus his power into a single point, in this case, his fist. His father kept on instructing him and reassured him that this was not really something one could learn in a single day and urged him to keep training.

By the time it was afternoon Linri was drenched in sweat. Still, there were no improvements in his control. For some reason, he thought this stance would be easier than the previous ones because it was about fire, but out of the 3 stances he trained, he felt like it was the hardest. Then again, every instructor would start from the simple basics and move on to the hard stuff gradually so it was not really a surprise that this was harder than the prior two. The main point was that Fire was Linri's element, so he was disappointed to learn that he was not gifted in this stance just because it was named as such.

When he was going upstairs Linri encountered Jaime who had just taken a shower and was heading downstairs. Her hair was still damp and her face had a healthy blush.

"Done?"

"Yeah, what about you?"

"Same. Oh yeah, it has become boring to train alone lately, wanna spar against me tomorrow?"

"Thanks, but no thanks" Linri answered while rubbing his left wrist.

"Why? I thought it would be fun."

"For you maybe, but for me, it hurts like hell. Each of your sword strikes leaves a bruise on my fists, so I don't like it."

"Then why don't you train in the sword as well? You could always try my family technique, but it's mostly geared towards females... Actually, now that I look at you, I think your physique might be suitable."

"What does that even mean? Just because I am slim doesn't mean I have a girly body. Anyway, swords don't really sit well with my play style. Having close combat might be useful for surprise situations, but I think carrying a sword is just a burden so thanks, but no thanks."

"Well, it's your call anyway I need to head downstairs to watch my soap opera: today we are finally going to learn if the baby is Armando's or Hernandez's! I can't miss who the father is after investing this much time."

Yeah, Latino soap operas were still a thing even in an alternate reality. Just what's so good about that stuff?

"See ya then!" Linri went to his room and took a shower. Now that his body cooled down and he got rid of the heat it was time to start planning the heist.

Linri plugged in the flash drive to his computer and opened the file inside. Once he saw the contents he could not help but smile. She was right, there really was everything he could need in order to make the 'perfect' plan.

Edited By: ZombieCat090

Chapter end