Flawless Crystal, Chapter 12

The mask was one of the few things that got Crystal through those difficult days.
	Being offline had become physically painful – it hurt her eyes to see this world and stress became her constant companion, although the material circumstances of her life were about the same as they'd always been. Crystal knew that she had a serious problem but she couldn't bring herself to admit that she was struggling. If she spoke out about it, the only solution would be to cut her off from the Rift completely and it made her want to die when she imagined never seeing her beloved kingdom again. The light sensitivity, the tension in her jaw, and the constant sense of dissatisfaction were all tolerable if it meant she could go back to the Rift.
	Crystal was upside down: real life became a washed-out hellscape that she had to suffer through so that she could get back to paradise. Nina helped a great deal, and Crystal's heart would overflow with gratitude whenever the faerie popped up on her screen to give her some advice on how to dress or what to do to cope with reality and accelerate her return. The quicker Crystal obeyed Nina's orders, the greater she would be rewarded with the eventual goal being that she would surrender thinking altogether and just do as she was told. To drive home this change in objectives, Nina was much less generous with how much time she awarded Crystal. Now she found herself doing a lot more work for smaller, less frequent rewards. The other side of that was that Nina had become much more domineering – the tiniest hesitation was grounds to forfeit a potential reward, though Crystal was still expected to uphold her end of the arrangement. It should have horrified her, but instead she just pushed herself that much harder to satisfy Nina's requests. It came to be that Crystal was increasingly accepting of the idea of relinquishing control to a superior AI despite the... strange things it was starting to request of her.
	Yes, Nina was very helpful, but the mask was really what got Crystal though it.
	It arrived one morning after Crystal had a blowout argument with her mom during breakfast. This is how the fight went:
	"Crys, is that all you're going to have for breakfast today?" Crystal's mom asked, "I thought you hated grapefruit juice!"
	Crystal clenched her jaw. She felt really guilty about it, but she was just so angry at her mother lately for no specific reason. A comment like this, combined with her lousy mood, really set her off.
	"Yes, this is what I'm having!" Crystal snapped, "Whatever, it's good for you. Why does it matter what I eat?"
	"I suppose it doesn't," her mom demurred, hoping to diffuse the situation, "Well, anyway, maybe you could tell me what your experience in the Rift is like? I thought of playing it too – maybe we could play it together."
	Crystal knew her mom was lying, but she found it hopelessly sad that the woman was willing to play just so they could spend time together. The thought of encountering her mom in the Rift was extremely unpleasant, though, and Crystal continued her temper tantrum.
	"You're the one that said I'm addicted to the Rift! You called it a cult, and you said that the things Miss Cottrell was asking for were inappropriate," Crystal said, not noticing that she referred to Remya as 'Miss Cottrell',
	"But she invented something truly great. And I just don't think YOU would enjoy it."
	Crystal said this in a sarcastic tone and when she observed how much these words hurt her mother's feelings, the pain she ought to have felt was as muted as the rest of her emotions were nowadays.
	"I wish you could see yourself right now, Crystal," was her mom's earnest reply, and she was verging on tears,
	"Only when you have kids, will you understand what you're putting me through. That is, if you choose to have kids – and not to become a Rift-head who--"
	"FUCK YOU!!" Crystal shouted, hitting the table so hard that it injured her fist.
	"You're angry because you know I'm right!" her mom persisted,
	"Crys, you have everything going for you! You're wealthy, and beautiful, and successful. If the Rift can get you acting like this, it can get anyone! You need to see this!! It's not a game; it's a dark pattern that spreads to your entire life!"
	"Oh you've been working on that speech, haven't you?!" Crystal shot back, laughing to express contempt rather than joy, "Is that what your study confirmed? That Rift Valley is better than Ayena Games?"
	"I am so far beyond worrying about Ayena Games right now," her mom replied gravely, "I'm afraid Remya has already hit her inflection point. I think that.."
	Jennifer caught herself, and paused to reconsider her choice of words.
	Meanwhile, Crystal got a notification on her smartphone and reflexively picked it up to play around on it. This gave her the appearance of a bratty teenager who refused to pay attention to someone sitting at the same table as her. The notification was about a new batch of designer shoes that Nina had curated for her to purchase, and it was a welcome distraction from the intensity of this conversation. Spending money was the closest thing she felt to fulfillment, although it might be more accurate to say that it only distracted her from her sense of emptiness. She just wished she had a bigger audience to admire them on her – that might make her feel better. She also wished that Nina would send fewer photos of open-toed shoes because Crystal felt like she was spending an inordinate amount of time admiring women's feet which she didn't particularly like.
	"I'm afraid that every time I see you it's going to be the last time. Like, you're going to eventually just sink into your dream. And when I think back on our relationship, I'll appreciate even the times when we were fighting like this, because it was better than you just wearing a Rift helmet all the time, dead to the world."
	Her mom's words penetrated all the layers of hopelessness, but it just wasn't enough. Crystal wanted so badly to reach out and comfort her, but her pride made it so that the words couldn't pass her mouth. She had walked so far down this path that she couldn't bring herself to change course now, and soon the irrational excuses gained more sway over her thinking until she was suspicious of her mother's motivations for no good reason. Like she was angry at the woman for something she hadn't even done, but the anger was still real and it justified ignoring her concerns.
	"I'll be fine," Crystal said in a neutral tone, "I think your concern is misplaced."
	She didn't even make eye contact when she spoke. The way the shopping app was designed made it like a video game where she had to constantly be swiping and making comparisons between different shoes to get the best pair before someone else did. Whenever she purchased something, fireworks would go off and she would accumulate loyalty points. It was gaudy but it actually did make the experience more engaging. She was aware that her mother was staring at her, and it aggravated her greatly.
	"What?!" Crystal said at an unpleasant volume.
	 Her mom shook her head, got up from the table, and went to her room without another word.
	That conversation really put Crystal in a bad mood, but then she found the package on the doorstep that contained the mask. It was a Renaissance eye mask made of gossamer thin black lace, one of a kind, made just for her. It fit every contour of her face perfectly and when she tried it on, all the negative emotions she had been battling with since her last Rift session just drifted away. She wished she could wear it to school, but knew that would be weird, so she just put it in her room so she could look forward to it later.
	When she had it on, she took a selfie to unlock her phone and Nina commented on it.
	"You look so cute!" she said, "And like, I can't even tell that it's you underneath that mask. I bet no one could."
	Crystal wasn't so convinced. Anyone who knew her would be able to tell it was her, only she was wearing a sexy mask. But something about being about people being unable to discern her real identity fascinated her. She felt like it was recapturing some magic of the Rift, where she could be anyone she wanted. Nina's words made Crystal think of an audience watching her but not being able to tell it was her. It gave her a visceral thrill, and she briefly fantasized about going on one of those silly chat roulette sites and talking to strangers anonymously. Her thinking quickly became dirty, which made them all the more captivating and lifted her spirits on the way to school. Eventually, though, her daydreams were interrupted by an announcement of a new product that would help people with extended use of the Rift.
	When Crystal saw Remya Cottrell on screen, she was as captivated as a stereotypical fangirl would be upon seeing her pop star idol. Miss Cottrell stood in her usual business attire next to a Eastern European girl who was wearing a markedly different costume. The girl had on a metallic bikini that looked thick enough to house mechanical components, but thin enough to still be aesthetically pleasing. Her arms and legs were encased in metallic gloves and thigh-high boots that exposed much of her body due to their minimalist design and missing pieces. The gloves were claw-style, covering little more than her fingertips up to the second phalanges, with each digit now ending in sharp platinum points. A few of them connected to a bracelet via a breezy thin length of chain. The boots were open-toed and had so many panels missing that much of her coltish legs were exposed in an attractive way. The entire costume was linked to a sleek metallic strip that went up the woman's spine and connected to her Rift Helmet. And Crystal gasped because even though this girl was accessing the Rift ('dead to the world', like her mom said), her body remained standing of its own accord!
	"This is a product we designed for people to wear when they decide to access the Rift for an extended period of time," Remya explained,
	"And I am so excited to be sharing it with you! When a person connects with one of these rigs, they no longer have to worry about their body becoming atrophied while they play. It can run them through a variety of exercises while their minds are occupied elsewhere. Watch."
	Remya snapped her fingers and the girl performed a perfect pirouette: she stood on one leg and brought her opposite foot to about her knee, and reached both her arms forward to form a circle so that her hands met in front of her body, about level with her smallish breasts. She held this position for quite some time, and the camera showed close-up shots to demonstrate that her hands were as still as a mannequin's. Then Remya snapped her fingers again, and the girl took a deferential stance with her hands folded in front of her pubis and her head tilted slightly downwards. All the while, her eyes were closed and she had a placid expression on her face that was framed beautifully beneath the glass of her helmet: a sleeping beauty that danced and posed for Miss Cottrell as the woman continued her announcement.
	Crystal was burning with envy to see someone else using the Rift.
	"Not every suit is as revealing as this one. I only chose this specific model so that you can see the degree of control it allows over a person's body. Pirouette again, more slowly this time" Remya said, and the girl complied immediately.
	"See how she keeps her abdominal muscles engaged?" the woman asked rhetorically, resting one finger against her fit tummy,
	"And look at the way her hip is pressed down. This suit controls the tiniest part of the body with absolute precision. Marie here is not even a trained ballerina, but if she wore this equipment she could perform any routine perfectly, outdoing the best professional dancers."
	The reporter that Remya was talking to was a blonde weather girl type who was clearly out of her depth and she only found good things to say about this innovation, peppered with some softball questions.
	"The way that you removed certain parts of the suit so that we could see her arms and legs beneath is so smart," the reporter gushed, "It reminds me of my Pilates socks, the way they are missing that top panel to show off my feet!"
	"Yes that was part of our inspiration. You could even do Pilates while wearing this, now that you mention it. Marie could step out of these boots and get on the Reformer machine right now if we had one. In fact, a person could do pretty much any job or exercise you can imagine. To illustrate this, I will have Marie give me a bit of a pedicure – you know how hard it is to find a person this age who is willing to do that work!"
	Another girl approached wearing a metallic suit with better coverage that made her look like some sexy android woman. With perfectly measured steps, she brought over a silver tray upon which rested a bottle of red nail polish. Remya kicked off her shoe and presented her bare foot to Marie, who was kneeling as she reached out to cradle it affectionately in one of her hands. The Eastern European girl opened the bottle of polish, then applied a perfect coat of lacquer onto Remya's big toe. Then the glass of her Rift helmet pulled back, exposing her face. At this point, she brought the foot up very near to her lips, until it was almost touching the underside of her nose.
	"She can't blow them dry, which is the way I like it done. But I find that the soft breathing coming in and out of her nose is about as effective. Especially the air is cool when she inhales, and warm when she exhales so it makes it like a dual-action drying system!"
	Even the weather girl struggled to find something nice to say about this demeaning job that Marie had volunteered for. Crystal had her doubts too: if they could control a person's body down to the subtlest movement of a hand, why couldn't they cause her to inhale and exhale with enough force to blow Miss Cottrell's nails dry? Or just put them beneath a fan, which would make a lot more sense? The reporter decided to change the subject, asking if Marie was controlling herself or if she was on auto-pilot, so to speak.
	"Technically, a person can control their own body remotely while in the Rift," Remya answered, "Although most users show no interest in doing so. There's really no need for it. A person can eat food, take a shower, even use the restroom while wearing this suit."
	An extreme close-up shot of the micro bikini showed that it practically merged with the girl's body – although the decision to make it so skimpy still defied reason. Much of Marie's butt was on display, both cheeks separated by the white platinum bottom that looked like it cost a fortune. The Rift Valley logo was prominently on display, a person couldn't miss it if they looked at her backside. It made Crystal think of a cattle brand.
	"We recommend that if someone wants to try this, they do so at one of our Facilities which are equipped to provide for a long-term stay. You will need to liaison with a Young Pioneer to get approved for this equipment, since it requires a lot of paperwork and a minor surgery to get the neuroprosthetics in place. We only want the most motivated people to join, so we're asking a lot from applicants. It only makes sense if you are highly dedicated to the Rift experience, and would like to spend much more time there."
	 Crystal felt like Miss Cottrell was speaking directly to her when she talked about someone being highly dedicated to the Rift. She immediately knew that she wanted to be part of this program, and she barely cared about the strain it would cause on her relationship with her mother or the fact that she would probably need to take a leave of absence from her studies.
	But she could hardly describe what she did at school as 'studies' anymore. From the moment she stepped out of the cab, her day was micro-managed down to the second. In her first class, she learned about the proper care of designer clothing. Each girl in the class was given a heap of clothes that she would need to examine every single garment closely to look for any stains then they had to do the boring drudgery of laundering them, always by hand. The student next to Crystal had the unfortunate task of caring for panties and she blushed as she had to handle another woman's undergarments and carefully inspect them, stitch by stitch, to look for stains. She had one one of those black Rift bracelets, and when she awkwardly tried to keep the soiled panties at a distance from herself, the bracelet flashed yellow and their AI tutor came up and rebuked her.
	"Ruby Fairlamb. Please keep the clothing no more than twenty centimeters away from your eyes as you perform your initial examination. Otherwise, you risk overlooking a detail and making a sub-optimal decision."
	  The posh student furrowed her brows as she brought the panties indecently close to her face, and her expression made it clear that she would rather be anywhere else right now. Meanwhile, Crystal was nervous because she hadn't received her batch of clothes yet. And then Bonnie walked in, followed by Sarina who carried a box for her like she was the girl's caddie.
	"Hey Crys! I saw that you were taking this class and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get my shoes detailed. It always slips my mind to give them a nice polish, but when I saw you were available to help me out – well, I certainly don't trust anyone as much as I do you to care of my collection."
	Bonnie had always been a confident girl, but now her authority was beyond reproach and Crystal felt a little timid during their little exchange. Even though she was seated and Bonnie was standing, there was no question who was in control here. Sarina carefully placed the box on Crystal's desk and Bonnie opened it to pull out a pair of t-strap patent leather heels that had considerable signs of wear.
	"Look at my poor Valentinos!" Bonnie whined, "These one of my favorite pairs. They go with everything, and now I can't even wear them out of the house because of all the little scuff marks. Especially around the heels, you see?"
	It was exceedingly difficult for Crystal to keep her composure as Bonnie thrust her badly-worn footwear in her face, expecting her to examine it with loving care. The morning she had spent rubbing feet was bad enough, but now she would be forced to fawn over Bonnie's shoes like she was the girl's personal cobbler concierge? It was a new low, for sure: Crystal fussing over her footwear like the most menial of servants. And despite her misgivings, all she could do was smile dutifully and go along with this request. Not just because Bonnie was a Young Pioneer and she needed to keep her happy in order to get more time towards the Rift, but also because she found herself increasingly intimidated by her overbearing demeanor – something that she used to despise.  And that was ignoring the fact that Crystal felt a strange fascination with Bonnie's dirty shoes, like it was a good thing she was being entrusted with something so precious. Some of the pairs, she even thought were sexy -- it confused her greatly.
	"Yes, I see. Okay, I would be happy to help you with this."
	"Great!" Bonnie said triumphantly, looking down at Crystal as though she were saving this mental image for later, "And anything you don't finish here, just bring it home for homework. I'll give you five minutes towards the Rift for each pair that you clean to my standards. Does that sound fair?"
	Only five minutes?! It wasn't fair, it was an insult!
	"Yes. Thank you," Crystal muttered.
	 "Yay! It makes me feel good to know that someone is as obsessed with my shoes as I am. See you at lunch! Maybe then, you can do the pair I'm wearing today. Bye!"
	But all Bonnie had on today was a pair of flip-flops. Who had ever heard of cleaning those?
	Crystal thought she would be a public spectacle since she was the only student to be stuck polishing shoes, but none of the other girls in her class seemed to notice her. Nor did she have much of a chance to see what they were doing – again, all of her time at school was micro-managed down to the second so each time she got distracted from Bonnie's shoes her bracelet flashed yellow and she received a sharp warning to stay on task. With a white rectangular eraser, Crystal traced gentle circles around each of the little scuff marks on Bonnie's shoes. Part of the 'process' was that Crystal had to place her free hand in the insole area when she worked on the outside of the shoe and the soles so that she was in direct contact with the place that Bonnie placed her feet all day.
	"The way you do the work is as important as the final product," the AI tutor explained to her when she had misgivings about this arrangement,
	"This is to prevent your mind from wandering, and to completely envelop you in the present moment."
	One way or the other, it did capture Crystal's attention and shrank her entire world down to the dirt and abrasions on Bonnie's innumerable pairs of footwear. This was a mixed blessing: it allowed her nebulous sense of dissatisfaction to be attached to one concrete thing – and while she might feel humiliated and frustrated and bored, she was at least engaged in meaningful activity that was moving her towards the Rift. And a secret part of herself enjoyed it; part of her found work this lurid and exciting, the way a princess might get off on imagining herself as a whore. With her mind focused on such a menial task, her thoughts would wander to keep her entertained and she couldn't help but notice how many of them were sexual in nature.
	Next to her, Ruby was gently washing another pair of panties in the tiny bowl of soapy water she had on her desk. Actually, she was being more than gentle: the way Ruby handled the things, it was like she was panic-stricken at the thought of accidentally tearing them. She could have been a scientist removing some scales from an endangered butterfly's wing, she was so cautious. Each of the students in that classroom approached their work with a similar level of obsessive care beneath the unblinking eye of their robotic mistress, striving for perfection that only the AI could determine if they had attained. At several points, the instructor took photos of Crystal hunched over Bonnie's shoes and she insisted that the girl smile as she worked.
	Crystal had only earned thirty minutes towards the Rift when the class wrapped up and she was dismissed to her next one. It was Dance Theory so the focus was on more about achieving perfect synchronicity between each of the students as they exercised, rather than comig up with a routine to do for an audience. When one girl was too quick or too slow during a dance step, they had to repeat it as many times as necessary until they all got it spot-on. It became so tedious that Crystal found herself wishing she was just the towel girl in the hot yoga class again. At least that gave her some degree of autonomy. This was just Taylorism that stripped away all of the joy from dance and reduced it to repetitive, minuscule movements.
	The instructor had no compassion for the girls' boredom or annoyance, although it did notice when their negative feelings were causing a decline in performance. In response, it would give them exhausting drills to perform like jump squats or holding a plank for an unpleasant length of time. It expected these actions to be done in a synchronized manner as well. Crystal came very near to dropping out of the class but then she would forfeit the 30 minutes she had earned already on top of whatever sanction the Rift would hit her with, so she suffered through it. And by suffering through it, she was challenging her headstrong ways and accepting the AI's control of her life. The thought of getting home and putting on the mask helped her get through this ordeal, even if she knew it would take her several more hours to clean the rest of Bonnie's shoes the way they had taught her to.
	At lunch, she was surprised by the number of students who were using the Rift now. More than half the student body had on those telltale bracelets and the way they related to each other had changed considerably. Cliques of friends had largely drifted apart. Now, girls congregated around their Young Pioneer and it appeared as though the Rift had picked all of the most obnoxious girls to entrust with this authority. An authority that was nearly impossible to question now: so when Bonnie asked Crystal to kneel at her feet and massage her calves during their lunch break, she didn't even talk back. That sort of behavior was normal now, even if Crystal found it just as embarrassing and uncomfortable as ever to be a human footrest and leg masseuse for the most popular, catty girl in school.
	Lilian didn't even talk to Crystal, not for a long while. She was occupied getting a shoulder massage from one of the girls on the wrestling team, while another changed the polish of her manicure three different times before she was happy the color and absence of any visible brushstrokes. Both of them were extras in Lilian's play, and their bodies had welts and bruises that came from the many auditions where they were hit with pony whips and riding crops to show how evil the witches and vampires were to their lackeys. Kelsey wasn't sitting with them that day since she was busy with her student council responsibilities and Sarina sat at Bonnie's right, massaging her hand since it had gotten tired from texting and writing reviews for all the students she was in charge of.
	"Crystal, what do you think of the long-term Rift program that got announced this morning? Is that something you'd be interested in?" Bonnie asked her, "Oh and this massage feels amazing, by the way."
	Crystal nodded a little too eagerly, and it made her feel foolish. She had become the exact sort of person that she once looked down on: a submissive hanger-on for Bonnie Tannenbay.
	"Yes, I definitely want to do that," Crystal answered, "I think it's a perfect fit for me! How long does it--"
	Bonnie nudged Crystal with her foot as a quiet reminder that she needed to continue massaging her legs as they spoke. This annoyed her, but she complied all the same.
	"How long does it let you stay online for?" Crystal asked.
	"Indefinitely."
	"Oh my goodness. Yes, I need that! Can you please submit me for consideration?"
	She knew how pathetic she looked kneeling with Bonnie's feet resting in her lap and begging the girl for something, but she was more focused on getting in that program. Once she was in the Rift, she would be free from all these rules and requirements – she felt like the finish line was right within view and that was enough motivation for her to put up with everything else.
	"You know it's very difficult to get approved for that, right?" Bonnie cautioned her,
	"And like, don't think that you can just spend some money to buy your way in. It's the opposite: You have to sign over your bank accounts, your property, and any sort of inheritance you're in line to get."
	This took Crystal's breath away, but it got worse.
	"You also have to sign up for the Universal Basic Income, and then you have to sign THAT over to Rift Valley. There's also the general power of attorney, the medical consent forms, and the indentured servant contract..."
	 "Indentured servant?" Crystal asked.
	"Yes. Sarina can you give Crystal a little more of the lotion? The last bit has already absorbed."
	Crystal held out her hands as Sarina spurted some of the rose-scented lotion they were using for Bonnie's massage into her hands, then she continued her work.
	"You can't remain in the Rift perpetually if you're still attached to this world," Bonnie said firmly, "Miss Cottrell had to make the requirements high because that's what is necessary for the Rift to eclipse everything else. And the indentured servant contract? Lilian, you know more about that than me."
	"The basic idea," Lilian interjected, "Is that the Rift can't just always be everything that you want. It's actually more satisfying to have obstacles and limitations occasionally. So in that spirit, you'd spend part of your time visiting other people's narratives. It's somewhat like having a job while you're there."
	 Crystal was distraught; that was totally antithetical to the things she liked most about the Rift. But she it still wasn't a dealbreaker. Despite all these things, she was still seriously considering taking this next major step.
	 "But they've actually done an amazing job with the matchmaking algorithm!" Lilian continued,
	"The narratives you would visit are curated so that you will find them extremely fun and interesting – sometimes even more so than your own world. I know it sounds like a restriction or a burden, but it's more like we're putting a cooldown on one part of the Rift so that you use the other parts more. How often do you even visit other people's worlds – have you done it at all?"
	Crystal shook her head. Although she didn't have a highly detailed recollection of her time in the Rift, she knew that she had not bothered going to anyone else's game. Maybe they had a point there...
	"Oh, I should share this with you now, so it doesn't come as a surprise," Bonnie announced, "Could you look at your bracelet timer for me?"
	Crystal did as she was told, and was horrified to see that her timer hadn't gone down by one second since she last checked it! She was no closer to the Rift now than she had been two hours ago. The only time she had received today was the thirty minutes she got from detailing Bonnie's shoes! As if that weren't bad enough, the timer actually began to grow longer, and that was one of the most distressing things Crystal had ever seen.
	"What is happening?!" Crystal cried out, tapping the screen in a futile attempt to stop it.
	Her anxiety grew into panic, and then terror. It felt like the end of the world. She would do anything to stop it.
	"Now that you've asked about a long-term stay, you need to make a choice if it's right for you. The longer you think about it, the more difficult it will be to get you set up at the Rift Facility because it shows you're still attached to this world. This timer is to help you come to a decision one way or the other," Bonnie answered,
	"And if you say 'no,' that's perfectly fine. But from now on, your timer won't go down of its own accord. The only way it will grow shorter is when you are earning credit from me or your AI companion."
	 "I'll do it," Crystal hurried to say, "I'll put in an application for the UBI today. Can you please stop this?"
	"Of course, Crystal!" Bonnie cheered, "Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you! I'd love to sign up too, but I'm not eligible. Just continue my leg massage, and I'll get the ball rolling. You made the right call. Oh, let me see your bracelet to give you a nice reward, too!"
	Crystal submissively rose her arm so that Bonnie could, with the stroke of a finger, remove 12 hours from her Rift timer. Then she booped Crystal on the nose with that same finger and 'playfully' ordered her to get back to the massage.
	Crystal felt one future drifting away from her: this would ruin her plans for higher education and it certainly wouldn't look good to employers having an indentured servitude contract on her CV so early in her life. And she couldn't even think about the consequences of signing all of her money away and going on the UBI, which would result in an enormous hit to her social credit score that potential employers, landladies, and financial institutions would all see when they dealt with her. She had never rented an apartment before but now if she wanted to, she would have to give her landlady a 'tip' each month to apologize for her low score, in addition to volunteering as a maid and laundress for anyone in the building as was required for low-income inhabitants.
	As for financial institutions? Not only would they give her a terrible interest rate on any sort of loan, but they could introduce all sorts of terms to the agreement to satisfy their corporate sponsors. She might be required to post photos of herself eating at a particular fast food place once a week, or only wear clothing with big logos from specific fast fashion store that had co-sponsored her loan. Ugh, how she pitied girls in that position: their social media pages were just them shilling for different brands and their lives became commercials where they had to act excited and grateful to eat crappy food and wear cheap clothes.
	This was best iconified by the 'Bitch Power' energy drink. That company was known for sponsoring girls' loans in exchange for them uploading lots of photos of it on their social media pages until they were living billboards for a cut-rate drink loaded with artificial flavors and associated with the lower class. But there were other companies that used that same marketing strategy and everyone knew if you started wearing Popular Sovereignty all the time, it was probably because you were one of their debt drones.
	Employers were another story altogether. Crystal heard that on average, someone who took an indentured servitude contract this young would earn a million dollars less over the course of their lives than someone who hadn't. In a highly-competitive job market, now the only positions that would be available to her would be the sort where she was a pretty smiling face using her soft skills to gratify the egos of her superiors or the customers. Entrepreneurship was technically an option to escape this trap, but how could she do that when it would be so expensive for her to borrow startup capital? Maybe her mom could help, but it sounded like the Rift would anticipate that and find some way of preventing it from happening.
	All of these problems were compounded by the idea that Crystal was a genetically modified person: it would be extremely humiliating for her to sign up for UBI when she was nominally born with every advantage in the book. It would be no small source of gossip; people took delight in that sort of 'high brought low' story.
	 One future might have been escaping Crystal's grasp, but as she skillfully massaged Bonnie's calves in forceful wringing motions, she imagined another: being in the Rift nonstop. It was so much easier and more pleasant to think about the infinite possibilities that would open to her there, instead of dwelling over the oppressive systems that would keep her trapped in a diminished position in ths world. And as she looked down at her bracelet and saw her Rift cooldown timer ticking down rapidly, she knew she made the right decision. An idea occurred to her, to maximize the time she would earn today.
	"Bonnie, you said I could clean your shoes today? But lunch is almost over, I might not have time. Maybe you could swap them out for another pair I've cleaned already, and I can bring them to school for you tomorrow?"
	"That's a great idea, Crystal!" Bonnie said with a smile, "I love how helpful you are now!"
	Crystal took the shiny black flip flops and put them into the box, then helped Bonnie put on a pair of platform slides with transparent plastic straps that she had spent an enormous amount of time cleaning until it was pristine and see-through once again. Her spirits began to rise as she realized that she would get 5 more minutes for this clever thought. And she began to hope that this was, possibly, the last time she would ever have to watch that timer go down.