My day off (Mobius)

In a world where indoor shopping malls were slowly dying out, the Ashford Shopping Mall was a magnificent last gasp. Rivaling Mall of America in size and options, it as a grand and shiny new shopping center filled with some name-brand stores... and quite a few upscale knock-offs, as the eternal blockade around the island had naturally caused a few big businesses to get nervous and pull out before the place was finished. The place, despite its grand size, or perhaps because of how big it was, was not very crowded. The island was a rather exclusive place to live, so while most of the invited residents lived in luxury and had plenty of disposable income to spend on random bits and bobs and goods and junk, there was only a limited amount of them and the rate of immigration was a trickle at best. It could also have just been the time, as the stores and the VR park didn't open until 10, and it was around 9:45 am.

Still, the delighted Doctor Möbius was sure he'd get a good look at some those shops and good places to "rob" after he started his artificial reign of terror upon the populace. To blend in, he was wearing clothing that wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a tourist who was well-off enough to get in through the airport, but not quite upper-class enough for a non-Oddity human to get invited to live in the place. A teal polo shirt, khaki cargo-shorts, a fanny pack, a wide-brimmed straw hat, and mirrored shades... plus the inevitable open-toed sandals. All that exposed flesh revealed that, while in desperate need of some sun, the good doctor was relatively fit. Wiry, rather than scrawny.

Around his neck, Möbius had a strap that held what appeared to be a high-end digital camera. In truth, its photo-taking capabilities had been reduced, as the internal circuitry and been replaced with a bunch of equipment that allowed Moebius to "see" things in infrared, shoot a radar beam (disguised as a laser pointer) at various objects and ascertain density and toughness, and even record sound in higher quality than the native camera microphone had allowed. The pictures, however, were inevitably awful-looking, like he was using some point-and-shoot device from 2008. It was a small price to pay.

He noticed Madison, while he was snapping a photo of the rip-off Nordstrom... as he checked the image, and a few numbers that showed him what ELSE his "camera" had picked up. As she walked to the coffee shop, he raised an eyebrow at her choice of outfit. It was stylish and well-coordinated, true. Hell, it would have made heads turn even if she was walking around New York. However, being in a mild-yet-balmy tropical climate that was rather warm year-round... well, it made her choice of clothing more noticeable.

"Aren't you a bit hot in that?"

Möbius couldn't help but ask his question with that Ohio accent of his, an accent that was mostly defined by a lack of accent that could prove he was from anywhere else as he spoke.

"I mean, it is 31 degrees out, but that's Celsius, not Fahrenheit..."

Madison Quinzell

Doctor Möbius kept up his genial smile as Madison got coffee from the little kiosk he'd been standing in front of. Another rip-off brand name. Instead of a "Starbucks", the Ashford Island local coffee chain was called "Star Coffee" and had an image of a rocket taking off with twin plumes, vaguely in the same shape as the two-finned Starbucks mermaid. Once Madison had coffee in hand, and explained a bit about herself, Doctor Möbius extended his free hand... before retracting it upon realizing that both of Madison's hands were full. Though, he made sure to wait an amount of time that would be recognized as awkward before he did so, just for fun.

"Oh, nice to meet you, Madison, I'm Johann. And uh, not more than a few months. I'm only really here for work, so I've been around the island mostly. But today's a day where I finally have free time to take in the sights!"

He held up his camera a bit while mentioning the sights.

"And boy-howdy, is it not as flashy as I'd hoped. I mean, an island full of people with genuine superpowers like my old comics, you'd think more would be using them! I guess the mall isn't so bad, though, it gives Mall of America a run for its money. It's just missing the roller-coaster."

"Oh, I'm a professional engineer, troubleshooter, and research scientist. Essentially, a one-man science team here to hopefully not break a whole bunch of stuff around the island and fix its major problems. The AI system used for the self-driving cars is all sloppy, and a lot of the smart-appliances used around the place have big holes in their security. So I'll be doing a lot with those, among other things."

Doctor Möbius chuckled to himself. He couldn't help it! None of what he'd said was technically a lie, it was just worded in such a way that made his plans sound very different from what they actually were.

"As for what I'm doing on my day off, just... taking pictures and gathering data I suppose. Can't really justify taking a full day off to myself, so I'm taking in the sites from a closer angle and... just getting a feel for the place. See what has vulnerabilities that some bad-guy might be able to take advantage of before someone else figures them out, etcetera."

He didn't know why, but Möbius found himself wandering along with Madison around the mall. She might have enjoyed the small off-brand business names, but she probably didn't know the truth of the matter. Everything in the little Ashford town was owned and operated by the Ashfords. A few of the small businesses might have had individual owners, but they had contracts with the Ashfords, bought their supplies from the Ashfords, and rented their storefronts from the Ashfords. It was just one big company town, with the poor rabble kept hidden out of sight.

"Oh yeah, those old superhero issues are super rare. Everyone just does westerns or Conan rip-offs now."

Despite his train of thought chugging along on the path of hating what the Ashfords had done to a relatively decent island that was once part of a sovereign nation, Möbius kept himself from scowling, and managed to focus enough to take more of his "photos" here and there. And then he heard Madison recounting a little two sentence story about one of her clients...

"See, now that's a neat trick! The flying client, I mean. Could you imagine what she could do if she was allowed to just... use her gifts? I mean, not even necessarily to do something grand or big, just... bein' able to fly to work or over the park on a sunny summer day, for the joy of it! I mean, I can only imagine what it feels like to have wings that you can just flap and lift yourself off the ground. Ugh... it would be a better world if that gift of hers was just hers to enjoy, y'know? Not a scar or a stigma."

"Yeah, I suppose that is a staple of the Frankenstein films. Well, except for that one where he played basketball, but the less said about it the better."

Doctor Möbius never knew how much credence to give to the theories that myths and stories were secretly influenced by Oddities. Some were just too fantastical and rigid in their rules to be caused by singular individuals with unique powers. For example, the strigoi of Romania, who had been sighted in many villages over centuries and who were always identified as the corpses of individuals that had been known to their communities by name and face. Werewolves? Well, there were dozens of different types, ranging from madmen that just thought they were wolves to people that took over the bodies of wolves to those that supposedly manifested dream versions of themselves as giant wolves in their sleep or while meditating and praying. Considering the amount of legends spread over time, it was unlikely that a single Oddity or group of Oddities with shared powers was the definitive source of the legends. The same with various magical traditions, mythical monsters, and gods.

Now, as for Frankenstein... who knew? It could have been that an Oddity with regenerative powers was put together wrong after being sent to a medical school by grave robbers who thought he was dead, or that a man with the power to bring the dead back to life had thought his abilities to be merely applied knowledge... or maybe Mary Shelley came up with a scary story after a dream.

"Say, Madison... this may be a strange question, but have you noticed anything... weird going on the last few days? Sorry to change the subject, but I'm only getting a limited look at any system glitches and whatnot from my computer. Sort of need to know if anybody on the user side has been noticing things like, doors not opening or Internet service cutting out."

"Alright, that could all either be a concerted effort by hackers to mess with the central servers... or just everything being built cheap by the lowest bidder. Private corporations tend to be cheaper than governments, and they'll invest even less in security if they can get away with it."

Doctor Möbius shrugged after he said this.

"I'll at least take a look at the door and traffic light controls, when I get the chance. Those really, really shouldn't be malfunctioning, not if we want to avoid accidents."

He felt like he would be pushing his luck if he stayed too much longer. Even with his disguised camera, it was going to look weird if he kept taking photos and hanging around this random woman. So, he took a step back and pulled out an antique pocket watch that looked to made of genuine silver.

"Ah, look at the time. I'm afraid I've got to run. Good getting to know you, though."