Psiksi felt somewhat hopeless as he sat on the cold, stone bench and watched the world go by. Lots of Thanatians and Vrekans, with the odd Rethan scattered among them, wandering through a holiday marketplace. Winter was always a time for holidays, as the more ancient races were preparing for the return of warm weather. Almost everyone knew these days that the seasons were going to change, but in ancient times, nothing was ever certain. Nowadays, everyone just used old traditions as an excuse to have a bit of fun.
Psiksi though was not having fun. He was sad. He was out of a job, and he had no idea what to do. Most normal Rethans would just shrug and move on, often reapplying to a local Legion or some part of the Stratos, just so they’d have a small wage and benefits available to them. But for Psiksi, this was a first. He’d always had a job. Someone had always given him a job. And now he was out here, on his own.
Alright, Psiksi wasn’t entirely on his own. His friend Kass was currently wandering around, mingling in the crowd, looking for presents for friends. Psiksi hadn’t told him what had happened yet. That wasn’t really a problem. Kass would be fine with it. Maybe a bit annoyed, but he’d be fine. It was the whole having to look for a job that bothered Psiksi.
Really, now that Psiksi thought about it a bit more, he didn’t have any particularly useful skills. Yes, he was a trained super soldier but he was a super soldier who didn’t want to fight. Psiksi probably wouldn’t even have been useful as a bodyguard, since he was too small to look scary. What bothered Psiksi more was that everything he managed to do was because he happened to know someone. He’d never really… done anything on his own.
“Heya!” Kass suddenly erupted from the crowd and threw himself into the empty space next to Psiksi. “Wow. You look glum.”
Psiksi decided to just be blunt and honest. There was no reason to lie. “I don’t have a job any more.”
“Oh. Why?”
“Because the High General doesn’t need anyone to assist the local government here in Palaestra. He said I am free to pursue any career I want.”
Kass didn’t seem annoyed at all. “Never mind. We’ll find you a new job.”
“Like what?” Psiksi sighed, putting his head in his hands. “I’m no good at anything!”
“That’s a load of piss… We’ll find something. There’s no need to panic right now though. No need to immediately get you back into work…” Kass looked around. The street was quite busy, and he was slightly worried someone might steal the gifts he’d just spent the last hour buying. But thankfully, everything was fine.
Psiksi grunted. He was embarrassed more than anything else. The rest of the world didn’t seem to care, they just continued walking around the market, leaving him and Kass alone on their bench. “I don’t want you to look after me.”
“It’ll just be until after Macromera when everything opens up again!” Kass smiled, putting an arm around Psiksi. “I can look after both of us for now. Alright, we gotta be a bit careful on what we spend, but that’s what friends do. It wouldn’t be fair to just shove you into a job you don’t like.”
“I know but still, I wammmmph?” Psiksi blinked as Kass shoved some sort of chocolate sweetie into his mouth. Psiksi immediately removed the offending candy and growled.
“Don’t do that.”
“You’re worrying. I needed to calm you down!” Kass explained as he stood up, picking Psiksi up with him. “I get it. It sucks losing your job. You’ll get a new one. In the mean time, I have enough for both of us. Plus it means you can help me with some things.”
“Like what?” Psiksi asked.
Kass rummaged through his shopping bags, then smiled. “Well, I have a ton of presents that need wrapping. And I still need to find a few extra gifts. Still haven’t found anything for Gath… Assuming you want to help?”
Psiksi smiled, for the first time that day. “I’d love to…”