Banking on Beginnings

Banking on Beginnings is the first installment in the Canto Universe stories, and the first installment of the Bank Arc.

Part One
Jotun

I hear something. It’s quiet, yes, but it was definitely something. In fact, I didn’t hear the rumble so much as I felt it. Subtle, nearly imperceptible, but it was unmistakably there. Sort of like when you accidentally swallow food whole without chewing and you get this really heavy lump free-falling down your throat. Then it plops into your stomach and sits there all awkward-like, and then you wish you weren’t reading the Soliday comics while eating lunch. It is precisely like that, except I felt it. In fact, the plopping feeling is spreading up from my feet diagonally to my left shoulder. It’s a good thing heartlights are in the center of our chests.

“Hey, Chi, did you feel that? Felt like a quake, almost.”

With a start, Chidori snaps awake from her mid-afternoon nap and hastily pushes herself into an upright position on the bench. “Wha-? Good morning, Jotun! Ready as ever!”

An irritated scowl flashes across my mask, but it vanishes as fast as it came. I don’t know why I even bother feeling bothered, Chidori’s always been like this. Raising my expectations for her is probably unhealthy anyways, it builds up stress.

I settle for raising a single finger, the universal symbol for silence, and, for once, Chidori mercifully complies. Despite the overwhelming quiet, I am sorely tempted to outright press my ear against the floor. That would be exceedingly unbecoming of me, though. After all, I am not alone in the room; even sofa-sleeping pests demand a certain degree of respect from a Toa.

There it is again. A second, even more pronounced shake, as if the entire planet is rumbling. “What about this time, then? You must have heard it this time around.”

The spark-spitter just shrugs. “You’re the Adytum Odd Jobs’ Toa of Earth, aren’t you? Blockheads like you are supposed to be hearing things in the earth nobody else hears. If you still aren’t sure, stick your ugly face in the dirt or something.”

“Forget it, I liked you better asleep.” Chidori has a point, though. I know I am not imagining that tremor, yet it was nothing like an earthquake.

Adytum Odd Jobs. That is our official designation, far less preferable compared to ‘Toa Vayu’ which just rolls off the tongue. It has a certain ring to it, the Toa Vayu. It's almost like it was a proper team name or something.

With a discontent sigh, I stride past Chidori to the window. The glass is caked with grime, both on the inside and outside, and is still shoddily patched up with wood in one corner when some nutjob of a Matoran accidentally hit a ball through it. Probably thought he was Thom Ruth at the height of his career. At least the rest of the place is somewhat tidy. Sure, the wallpaper is peeling in a few places, revealing cracked concrete. Yeah, there is one spot near the front where the floor sounded like you kicked a baby Kane-Ra when you step on it. And, yes, I know, we still haven’t managed to pay the mortgage off and we’re stick-our-faces-in-dirt poor.

But it’s home. At least, it is for me. Chidori just stumbles in every so often and passes out on the couch.

If the window had shutters, maybe I could part them and lean in. The hypothetical dusky glow of the early evening would cast long shadows on my Miru, while I would be musing whether I was the Toa the town of Adytum needs, Batagori-style. I will have to make do with looking down at the narrow, dark alleyway during a lazy Soliday afternoon.

Bercilak and Rusalka rarely come in on the weekends, making for an altogether uneventful two days. They’re the veterans of the team and their presence is sorely missed. Coupled without a single job request for the past two weeks, and, well, all I have to keep me company are Chidori and a mounting property tax.

“Jotun! We- we got one!”

Namoka hastily stumbles in through the open front door while kicking a baby Kane-Ra, waving a slip of crumpled parchment, her bow and quiver flapping wildly on her back. Our door is always open, rain or shine or frightful weather. Company policy. It’s just that no clients ever come through them.

The young Glatorian of Fire must have gone through the Valley of the Maze and back; her normally pristine fashion statement of white-pink armor is flecked with mud. In addition, she is breathing heavily and had minute black flecks which appeared to be watermelon seeds stuck all over her. I won’t inquire.

“It’s probably some silly errand again, Namoka. Did you read this before you tracked filth in here?”

Namoka shakes her head so I turn to face her and humour the potential client. With her hands on her knees and heaving great gulps of air, she thrusts the slip of paper at me.

“Let’s see what Namoka’s dragged in this time,” Chidori said, her voice slurred and punctuated with a stifled yawn.

“You’re supposed to not be awake, go back to your ugly sleep or whatever. Ow! Hey, quit it!”

Chidori lazily flicks her finger at me and a snap of static electricity causes me to recoil in surprise, like I had touched boiling water. “I’ll throw a pebble at you hard enough to give you a new mask hole if you do that again!”

“It’s fine, Jotun, I never use my Mask of Healing anyways.”

“Oi! Use it, for Mata Nui’s sake!”

Clearing my throat, I read out the customer’s assignment.

“Odd Toa, I’ve a business meeting at the Greater Vayu Bank’s West Adytum branch. My kid’s got a speech presentation so if you guys could fill in for me that’d be peachy. I’ll make sure to pay you for your efforts. And it seems like the note is unsigned, it just has an address and time.”

“Hey, Jotun.” The Glatorian has finally recovered from what seemed like an equatorial marathon and peers quizzically at the note.

“Yeah, Namoka?”

“That Skopio-breath called us Odd Toa, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, he did.”

“I don’t like that name. Can we hit him?”

With great remorse and reluctance, I shake my head. “We might be the lowest dregs of society, but we shan’t stoop so low, Namoka, my girl.”

“So you say,” Chidori points out, “But you look like you really wanted to hit him. You wanted to hit an Agori, Jotun, an Agori. That’s illegal. The guards’ll lock you up, and then you’ll get locked up again because you’re so poor.”

“I still think we should take up the guy’s offer, it’s not everyday we get paid for an easy daycare job,” I continue, with a finger on my chin, weighing up the offer. “And this fellow is basically guaranteeing us a payment, we don’t often get that sort of thing. What do you guys think?”

Namoka rubs her chin, the very picture of consternation. “But it’s Soliday. Why would some kid be at school?”

“It’s fine,” I assure the troubled Glatorian. “If I remember correctly, there was this school-wide event. A speech presentation, or something.” Chidori shrugs and reaches around the back of the wooden bench for her warhammer. “Let’s roll out. Slag all to do today, anyways. And why are we even doing jobs when we’re not guaranteed money?”

I nod, a renewed sense of vigour coursing through me. “Then it’s settled. Chidori and I will wait for you outside, Namoka, while you, er… you’ll have to tell us why you’re covered in watermelon seeds later. Just wash up for now, and don’t forget to close the door behind you, not that we have anything worth stealing.” The Toa of Lightning and I file out and my hand reflexively shields my eyes from the bright sun. Many long years of work underground and solitude means I still haven’t gotten used to the bright surface.

“Say, Jotun.”

Chidori had paused a few steps behind me, just under the shop’s moldy awning. “I know I’ve asked this a lot, but why don’t you ever consider packing it in and just becoming a mercenary? You never tell me why when I ask. We’re basically ones already, except we do silly jobs, and have to pay way too much money to upkeep ourselves.”

Time for a pep talk, it seems. The shorty, once again, makes a good point. This is an argument she and the rest of the team have constantly hounded me for, even though Chidori’s the only one that ever outright complains. And I get it. I see where they’re coming from. The Adytum Odd Jobs have been at this for several years now and we’re getting nowhere.

My feet crunching against the unpaved gravel road, I swivel around to give the rookie Toa a good, long, look. She stands her ground and stares back, unflinching, her yellow eyes shining brightly behind her Kanohi of Healing, all traces of sleepiness gone. She would have been mildly intimidating if she weren’t craning her neck awkwardly, seeing as her tiny bright blue and white frame barely reached my shoulders.

It is I who broke the tense silence. “You want the short version, or the long version?”

“Namoka’s probably almost readied up, seeing how long we’ve stood here doing nothing. Let’s keep it quick.”

Smirking, I reply, “If I didn’t keep the shop open, you’d have nowhere to crash.”

“Wow, you’re so smart and funny. Why don’t I jolt your funny bone and numb it for a week?”

“Easy there, sparky,” I chuckle. “Long version it is, then. Even though I’ve never told you why I keep us together, you must have heard me say why to Bercilak and Rusalka tons of times, anyways. We’re a-”

Interrupting me mid-sentence, Namoka squeezes past Chidori to exit the Odd Jobs shop and waves. She even gives me a thumbs-up, as if I could possibly miss a bright pink Glatorian in broad daylight. Mata Nui, she sticks out like a sore thumb.

Still laughing gently to myself more than anyone else, I shrug apologetically at the disgruntled lightning Toa. “Guess this will have to wait for another time. Odd Jobs Adytum, roll out!”

Chidori

It baffles me, sometimes, to see how far the Agori and Matoran have come. As I understand it, Toa and Glatorian all over Spherus Magna have reported the same remarkable growth among the two races since the Navigation, something they would have never dreamed of happening in a hundred years, let alone less than twenty. The tireless, ingenious Matoran and hardy, resourceful Agori seem to click perfectly.

Adytum is no different. It is every bit as progressive as the other new cities scattered across the north-eastern quadrant, if not one of the most developed settlement. Namoka and I arrived a few years after the other three senior team members, but even then, the town was already a flashpoint for traders and sailors alike. And here it is now, bustling and booming, us Toa sidelined as freelancers with our previous line of work no longer required in this safe haven. I may not be paid to think, nor do I rarely think in general, but I know these things. I’m not as stupid as I look or as Jotun all-too-vividly describes.

So it all ends up with me, trudging along behind Jotun and Namoka, doing my best to look interested. Hopefully those two will do all the talking and we can get this job over with. I already regret coming along. Why do we have to babysit some rugrat Agori? A pointless question, I know. It’s all for the money.

I guess it boils down to the disbelief that I was berated for being a lazy worker as a Matoran but am now almost expected to be lazy. This… almost helpless feeling is still as fresh as it had been when I first felt it creeping up, like choking ivy spreading up bricks and mortar.

With a start, I recoil as a crash snaps me out of my thoughts. A Matoran, sprawled on the ground before me, climbs to his feet, woozily but livid all the same.

“What’s your problem, missy? Watch it!”

Staring daggers at me, Jotun rushes to the side of the fallen Matoran, a Fe-Matoran worker by the looks of it, one who had certainly seen better days. “Sir, are you alright? We’re terribly sorry-”

“Oh, I’m sure you are. Sorry lumps of uselessness, that’s what you are! Out of my way!” Breathing heavily with deep furrows casting a furious look on his mask, the Matoran of Iron hastily snatches his fallen belongings and rushes down the street without another word, shoving aside anyone unfortunate enough to be near him.

Inevitably, the hushed whispers begin. As always, I could hear the murmurs of disappointment directed at the perpetrator.

“How callous…!”

“A brute, that’s all he is.”

Sighing, I bow to the onlookers in apology and fall back in step with Jotun and Namoka, who had stayed completely silent as the debacle unfolded. It is heartening to know that we are still respected by the citizens for our work in the past, but it is abundantly clear that not everyone shares that mentality.

Jotun looks at me, an eyebrow raised, inviting an explanation. Pinky, too, turns back towards at me, though worry is written all over her face and her kind eyes are letting me know she will bail me out if Jotun gets angry at me. Thanks, Namoka.

“Look, I… Jotun, sorry,” I say with as much remorse as I could muster. “I was daydreaming, or whatever. Or just thinking about something.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, the Toa of Earth wearily replies, “I know this isn’t completely your fault, but you have to understand we, no, Toa in general are in a very precarious state at the moment. If you want to look on the bright side, it is an opportunity for us to forge a new path.”

Namoka seconds the team leader. “Now, more than ever, is a good time to form a bond with the Matoran and Agori, even those like that one, who was clearly down on his luck. We have to do our best for them all. That way, they will come to respect us again.”

The three of us stand in an awkward silence, with endless streams of Matoran and Agori parting around us.

Clapping my palms to the sides of my face, I snap out of it. “C’mon guys, let’s stop thinking. Just get the job over with and laze the rest of the day away, like we always do.”

Namoka

As of late, Chidori’s been a bit… tense. On edge.

I know her better than any of the Vayu. Both of us arrived together, on the same airship no less, and we’re both the team rookies. I was there when she transformed into a Toa and held her down as she kicked and screamed all the way. I was also there when she kneed me in the gut.

We’re all but sisters. That is, I guess, sisters from different worlds. Close enough.

Believe me when I say this, something is bothering the spark-spitter. She may be lazy, but she wears her emotions on her sleeve. While she may have questioned Jotun and the other senior team members in the past about our whole… situation, never has she been so concerned about the matter. We’re close to the school, but maybe I’ll have enough to time get Chidori to open up.

As we turn a corner from the busy market street to a quiet, residential road, I drop back from beside Jotun, hopefully out of his earshot, and get the Toa of Lightning’s attention with a slight wave.

“About earlier,” I hesitantly begin. “Chidori, if you’re up for talking, do you mind telling me if you’re satisfied with our explanations?”

Chidori manages to muster a small smile. Small, true, but sincere. “Yeah, Namoka. Even if you guys didn’t tell me anything, I think I knew the answer, subconsciously. And it’s not like I’ve asked you guys the exact same thing before.”

I return her smile with one of my own, but it doesn’t last long before the worried frown slips back. “Then is anything else the matter? You’ve been a little out of it today.”

“I have to say yes, don’t I?” Chidori gives me a sidelong glance, her eyes behind her Mask of Healing peering intensely at me.

All I can do is shrug. “Probably.”

“You’re too empathetic for your own good, Pinky, you know that? It’s just that I’ve been a Toa for such a short time, is all. I’ve worked with Toa in the past, but never got to experience being a Toa before the Reformation. We Matoran have always held up the Toa in high regard, but all my life as a Toa, I may be fairly well-liked but have known we’re bottom feeders. Not just us, I imagine other teams are facing this problem, save for the most famous of our number. Does… does that make sense?”

Jotun’s always told me I’m the most understanding one on the team; I’ve never raised the issue of our team’s current misfortune. I think it's not because I’m understanding, but rather because I have lower expectations. Chidori was once an elder’s, or Turaga’s, rather, Handmaiden, while I was out in the arenas, scraping together a living for myself and Vulcanus. But, it is good for her to focus on the plight of Toa in general, the big picture, not just how the team is struggling at the moment. “I know it’s tough, Chi. All I have for now are words of encouragement, so just know that we’re all here for support. Bercilak, Rusalka, Jotun, yes, even Jotun, all have high hopes for you. And you’re a great friend of mine. Jotun might a little annoying, but you know he’s a good guy, right?”

Chuckling softly, the Lightning Toa agrees. “Yeah, I know.”

“We’re here, guys,” Jotun announces, gesturing towards a wrought-iron gate. Sure enough, even on a Soliday, it is wide open, and a hubbub of activity could be heard from the school grounds. “Let us sally forth, soldiers! Our mission?”

“To protect some kid we don’t even know!” we reply, crying out in unison.

“Onwards, then! To glory!”

Chidori raises her fist and we share a knowing fistbump.

That’s enough girl talk for one day. It was time to make some money.