Loki’s Successor System

The blue beacon in the sky lit up the grim city. At peace, citizens of this said city observed its magnificence, when it was in truth a symbol of war.

Jin stood amidst the crowd of spectators, finding himself scared shitless. He had been questioning if others felt the same way about the beacon as him. Because all of them seemed to be mesmerized by it.

'They're probably just not as pessimistic as me because they don't see the screen I've been seeing.'

He stood paying close attention to others, while still shooting a few negligible glimpses at the beacon. Nothing interesting was happening in the crowd.

But not for long.

Because suddenly, a stranger darted through the crowd, aggressively shoving people aside. He rammed his shoulder into Jin, causing him to almost collapse.

"Watch it, people! Watch it!"

Bursting through the crowd of people was one thing, but what the Hobgoblin said after was worth all the concern.

He went on to utter, "That one is mine! I want that one!"

He started running towards the source of the light after breaking from the crowd. He ran at a remarkable pace, as if his life was on the line.

Grimacing, Jin muttered, "That one? What?"

He stood there in confusion, looking around at the people near him.

***

Jin stood there looking at the light for three more minutes.

After the light had disappeared, the crowd had too. And so, Jin finally decided to go home.

'I wonder what the hell thing was. Does it have any to do with the screen I saw before it appeared? A successor has fallen? Does this imply death?'

He walked with his head down, hood over his head, and his hands in the kangaroo pockets of his hoodie. He was minding his business as usual in that he wanted to avoid trouble.

He grew up knowing that merely looking at a race other than his own too much was like walking into a portal to problems. So he kept to himself at all times when not at home.

He didn't even realize when he had started putting his head down, and this bothered him slightly. He had sworn an oath to his long dead father that he would always keep his head up—no matter what.

His father always told him that a head held high translated to confidence. And….

"A chin up all day keeps the goblins away."

Jin sighed upon remembering these words. He was still bothered excessively at the fact that both his parents had perished.

What he didn't know, however, was that in truth they had died because of him.

Sorrowfully, he continued walking on the pavement, feeling how cold it was despite being in summer. The day was becoming darker—the world was becoming darker. For reasons unknown.

This wasn't rocket science for anyone in this world; they all knew that the days were brighter in the past. But how?

While walking, Jin began to hear, "Hey, you! Black hoodie, Stop!"

As he had turned around, he saw a Cyclops approaching him, and immediately got terrified. After what the goblin kid did to him, he wasn't taking any chances.

The Cyclops had but one eye alone. However, it possessed all the other features of a human being. Its hair was brown, and it was tall. It wore a black suit, with a white tie.

With a monstrous physique like that, no wonder why Jin had started running the other way.

One odd, unorthodox facial feature alone made the figure deemed as a walking monstrosity by many.

"Hey, please don't run away!"

Upon hearing how distressed the creature's voice sounded to his stubborn ears, Jin had decided to hear it out a bit.

He stopped, and turned around, peering at the Cyclops.

'It won't bite…wait…would it?'

The Cyclops sighed in solace having seen that Jin decided to stop. He walked up to Jin, looking at him with a smile he thought would look pleasant; but it came out creepy on Jin's end.

"Uhm, what do you want?" Asked Jin.

"I wanted to ask for another citizen's opinion on something. Why did you—why did you start running?"

Jin then replied, "I uh…I was jogging. Kinda…exercising my body a bit. As I shut-in, I…don't really…get out as much."

The Cyclops laughed, "So you didn't hear me calling out to you?"

"Huge coincidence that you started calling at the moment I started running. Then again, I thought you were calling someone else."

It laughed again, and said, "Alright. Let me don't interrupt you. I'll just ask the three questions quickly so that you can get back to your exercises."

"Okay," Jin replied, standing with his hands in his kangaroo pocket.

"Alright, I'm guessing you know, or have experienced, the intensity of racial discrimination in our country. Am I correct?"

"No shit."

The Cyclops took note of Jin's response, writing on a notepad.

"Good. Even I, as a representative, experienced it an innumerable amount of times. Racism remains one of our greatest problems as of right now. So we must put an end to it."

"Our greatest accomplished feat ever in history was when the Government suppressed the wicked usage of magic, and had created a world where fantastical races could coexist."

"On a scale from one to ten—with one being terrible and ten being great, how do you feel about the Government taking such actions? Our conversation is being monitored by our staff."

Having heard that he was being recorded, Jin took his time and thought about an answer. Getting himself into a compromising situation was the last thing he wanted right now.

He sighed, and responded, "I'd say six. Because the Government's got people eating ass now that they still choose who to give Abilities to. Jokes aside, I think it's fucked up that we gotta fear the cops and shit just because they've got powers."

Taking notes, the Cyclops then went on to ask; "Why did you decide to go with this answer?"

"Listen, I just wanna go home—it's already been a long day. But just bear in mind that the Government's fucked up more lives than we think by just keeping magic to themselves, and giving it to just anyone who meets the conditions to serve them."

The Cyclops took note of this too.

Then it asked another question.

"Okay, fair enough. When was the last time you've experienced racism?"

"Yesterday," Jin replied instantly.

"Okay. Lastly, give a feasible method the Government could use to fix racial discrimination."

Jin had no idea what he'd say in response to the question. After all, this question wasn't one you could just shit out an answer for. It required critical thinking, at least for Jin.

"I honestly don't know how I'll answer this question. Because even if the Government changes, racism won't."

"Take your time. No rush."

"Okay. Uhm. Racial discrimination will always be a thing. All I can say is that if all of the races were on equal footing financially, then we'd be experiencing less racial discrimination than we do now."

The Cyclops took a while to write this down. Then he smiled, and said, "Thank you very much…uh…"

"Jin," replied Jin, "My name's Jin Pierce."

"Okay, Mr.Pierce. Thank you for your participation. But I do have one more question. What me and my teams do is strive to eliminate racism among citizens."

"We believe the only way this can be achieved is by eradicating the fear and chauvinism between races. We think this can be achieved by teaching our children not to fear other races. Do you agree with us?"

Jin didn't completely agree, but to rid himself of conversing deeper about the topic, he decided to agree with him so that he won't have to advocate any further.

"I agree."

"I am very happy with your answers, Mr.Pierce. Thank you for your time—have a pleasant day, would'ya."

"Same to you," said Jin, walking away.

Jin didn't like surveys by any means. He hated surveys. But the survey he took on this day opened his eyes a bit. He was now bearing in mind that people were taking actions against their biggest problems in the world.

However, he had one main concern that pertains to their actions against the issue.

Would it amount to anything?

***

Jin picked back up his wheelchair, and sat on it.

He was about to go home. However, at the house; where he had left his wheelchair, a woman started calling out to him.

She was on the roof of her flat brick house, and it was only for this reason that she was able to see over her walls, and notice Jin.

"Jin! Over here!" She shouted in the distance, waving at him.

Using his hands to push the wheels of his wheelchair, he turned his head to the right, to see a woman waving at him. Simply, he put on a fake smile, and waved back at her, still going his way.

"Wait Jin—Stop!"

Jin sighed as he stopped. He was at the front of her house, waiting at her gate for her. She leaped off of her roof, and deliberately ambled towards her front gate.

'This weirdo. What was she even doing on that rooftop?'

She stopped after opening the gate. She stood there looking at Jin with a huge smile on her face.

She was a sixty-two year old lizard folk. A vertebrate with a backbone stronger than that of a human's. She had the rough skin of a reptile, and eyes of a huge lizard. Yet she stood on two legs as a man would.

Her skin was yellowish, and she wore red lipstick, with smudges of it all over her face.

For Jin, the most ridiculous thing she wore was undeniably the wig that was atop her head.

Running a hand through the strands of her brown wig, she cooed, "Good Morning, Jin."

With slit eyes, he responded, "Good evening, Miss Linda."

She chuckled upon hearing his response. Her body was juddering like an earthquake non-stop even when she wasn't shaking in laughter. And the way she gawked at Jin with her round eyes, made him horror-struck.

"Would you like to come in?" she asked him, opening her gate wider.

"Uhm, I don't think I can—my Grandmother's worried about me. I've been out all morning."

"Come in, I'll tell her you were at my place."

"I wouldn't want to bother you, Miss Linda. I—"

"Come in! Come in, I want you to meet my granddaughter!"