Thirty-three minutes later Maynard had arrived at Kingston High Street. He hopped off the bus and entered the throng of the crowd that ran through the bus stop like a small river. People pushed past him without acknowledging his existence, and in return he waded through the river with the same sentiment. The remainder of his journey was merely a few steps to the right, and as he stood outside the McDonald’s that he and Jay had agreed to meet at, he decided to check his phone.
He was ten minutes early.
Unsure about what to do, Maynard made his way inside the fast food restaurant, sat down at one of the tables near the entrance and responded to the text that his father had sent him during transit. As the minutes dragged on and the album he was listening to ended, Maynard found his way onto the wiki for Silent City. He quickly brought up the extremely bare page for ‘the invitation to the Second Ring’ and began editing its contents. He pulled open the MMO’s companion app and took screenshots of the item in his inventory. Normally he would spend more time on the app, doing daily mini-quests and flipping products on the in-game auction house, but today he was focusing on securing his bragging rights.
Moving back to the wiki page, he began uploading the screenshots of the item. It was only when Maynard began transcribing the message contained within that he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He looked up and saw a scraggly young man in a purple hoodie, with large red-trimmed headphones wrapped around his neck sitting on the opposite side of the table. Brushing his long brown fringe out of his face and ineffectually tucking it behind his ear, revealing a wide smile as Maynard realised he was there.
“Hey Jay!”
“You been waiting long?”
“Nah,” Maynard said, “I got here like five minutes ago, but I’ve been updating the Silent City wiki since.”
“So you’ve not ordered then?”
“Not yet.”
“Then let’s do that while you finish bragging,” Jay replied with a chuckle as they stood up and began making their way through the busy fast-food restaurant.
“Hey!” Maynard exclaimed as he jabbed his friend with his elbow, “You’d be doing the same thing as me if it’d dropped for you.”
“Not true,” Jay said, posing like a dandy, “My goals are less ephemeral.”
“Liar,” Maynard responded with a snort.
The two continued to chat aimlessly as they got their food and began making their way to the pub. Their journey was not a long one, but they were in no rush. Maynard finished editing the wiki page and they both meandered by the closed shops, before stopping above the canal to throw their rubbish in the nearby bin.
“How’s Nina doing?” Maynard asked, looking over the side of the small bridge they stood on while Jay lit a cigarette.
“Not too badly, to be honest,” Jay said after taking a toke on his cigarette, “her parents weren’t happy with her results, but that’s kind of to be expected.”
“No s***, she took a boatload of acid when she should’ve been revising.”
“It wasn’t a boatload…”
“It was enough to stretch over the entire week before finals,” Maynard replied with a laugh.
“True,” Jay sighed, taking another toke and flicking off the ash at the end of his cigarette. “How about you and Amy? How’s that going?”
“It isn’t. We’ve not spoken since college finished, and I kind of think she’s cutting ties with me before she goes to uni.”
“She’s only gonna be in Leicester right? That’s not that far away from London.”
Maynard shrugged, “I know right?”
Finishing his cigarette, Jay stubbed it out on the top of the nearby bin and they continued their walk towards the pub. After a moment of thought he frowned and said, “I should probably warn you that Grace and Iain are on the rocks again.”
“Again?”
“Yeah, Nina heard from Grace that Iain might be cheating on her and you know how prone to explosions she is.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on her. I’m pretty sure the only people I have known for longer than her are my parents and her uncle,” Maynard replied with an equally deep frown.
“I still can’t believe you two know the guy who wrote the Endless mythos.”
“Retrospectively it’s pretty great, but before he sold Silent City he was just my dad’s weird and slightly racist best friend.”
“I guess that makes sense. You know what he’s doing now? Is he writing a new Endless book or exploring the Amazon rainforest?” Jay asked, his eyes betraying his avid interest.
“Absolutely not, he barely explores his amazon orders, let alone the rainforest. My dad’s not heard a word from him in a year or so though, which could be good or it could be bad.”
The two friends walked up to a pub that had all the hallmarks of being recently renovated; obvious fresh paint, perfectly clear glass windows, and flecks of dust still littering the pavement outside. Soft, purple and yellow lights lit the pub and contrasted with the rough metal music that someone had played on the jukebox. It was just beginning to get busy, but there were still more than enough empty tables. This was the Rope and Paddle – an average riverside pub filled with students, cheap alcohol, and loud music.
Maynard was about to make a beeline through the entrance to a table when he was stopped by a bouncer who dwarfed both him and Jay in proportion. He ushered the two young men over and sighed, before saying, “Come on lads, you’ve been here enough. IDs out, then you give me your wrist so I can stamp it. Don’t make my job any harder than it has to be.”
“Sorry Danny,” Jay replied as both he and Maynard pulled their passports out of their back pockets, “How’s the night going?”
“Not too bad, but most of the evening clientele don’t show up until nine.”
“Well we won’t spend too much time bothering you. Do you know if Karan already arrived? He said he would be here around now,” Jay asked as they received their stamps. Maynard looked at the shape of the stamp and frowned. There was something that he recognised in the logo of the stamp but he could not place what.
“Indian guy with the fake looking hair right? He arrived five, ten minutes ago. Should be floating about inside.”
“Thanks, see you later dude,” he said and walked in with Maynard following close behind. They made their way towards the bar and ordered drinks – beer for Jay and cider for Maynard, then made their way to a large empty table by the window.
As Maynard began drinking he looked back at the stamp and began wondering where he had seen it before. Taking another swig, he raised his wrist and asked Jay, “How long has the Rope had this stamp? I’ve seen something similar before.”
“I’m pretty sure they’ve been using that stamp for at least as long as I’ve been able to get in here. Where’d you see it?”
“I’m pretty sure that the middle section of the stamp is the same as the icon at the top of the invitation item.”
“The one from Silent City? Seriously?” Jay asked after chugging most of his pint, “I think I know what you’re talking about though.”
“You’ve seen the symbol before?”
“No,” Jay said, “There’s a psychological phenomena of what you’re experiencing. I think it’s the… Dunning Kreuger effect?”
As they were talking, two women and a man walked up to their table. They were all of around the same height, but the man was obviously of Indian descent, while both girls were distinctly European, but one was blonde and the other brunette. As he sat down, the man said, “Did I hear you say ‘Dunning Kreuger effect’?”
