More guests arrived, and I was astonished to see what some of them were wearing. The suits that I thought were too gaudy where I bought mine are actually popular here! These guests sat down at the other tables, though a few walked over to the cafeteria along the wall, but I saw someone walking in the direction of our table.
"Is that... her" I quietly asked when I saw a person who seemed to match a description I was given before. The person that walked towards our table stopped in front of it, and I felt a shiver down my spine.
"Yes." Juna told me before she stepped up from her seat and approached this presumed visitor, which highlighted the similarities and stark contrasts with their appearances, notably that the height difference between them.
This visitor towered over her, and from where I was sitting, I was sure she was also several inches taller than me. Both of them have black hair, but this visitor's hair was waist-length, curled at the ends and had red streaks.
Where Juna had her hair in a simple bun, this visitor had her long hair tied into four ponytails along the top of her head, and she had long ringlets at the sides. On the top of her head, she had a large red bow with white stripes on it.
She was wearing an off-white short-sleeved gown with a black apron over it; the apron had red trim along it, and she wore a pair of chain necklaces which had pendants with red gems in them. Her gloves were black with red cuffs and red stripes around the gloves, and she also wore chain bracelets.
She and Juna didn't exchange words, but for several seconds that felt much longer than they were, they exchanged glances. Two pairs of gold eyes looking at each other in a silent showdown. It felt like instinct or a duty, but I stood up and approached them, which confirmed that the visitor is several inches taller than me. She's elegant but gives off an intimidating aura. I wasn't deterred.
"What are you here for?" I asked her, refusing to back down. "I was warned about you, Multiplicia." I glared.
"Well well, you are such a gentleman." The visitor, Multiplicia, cheerfully told me without any sarcasm in her voice. "However, you're reckless for an Operating Superstar aren't you?" She asked. Her tone didn't change, but that question cut deep.
"I didn't tell you I'm an OS." I said, defiantly. What was I thinking? If a fight broke out between them, there was no way I could've stopped it without getting severely hurt, if I even could at all, yet I felt compelled to try if push came to shove.
"Never before have I seen you but I've seen everyone else who surrounds you, so I can conclude you’re a brand new OS. I presume if you wanted to hide that but attend the event, you could've asked for one of the Developers to let you borrow their lab coat. If you wore one and acted casually about it, then it might've fooled me." She chuckled.
I tried to think up some arguments to what she said, but nothing sounded good. After several seconds of silence, I sighed. "It's hard to argue against that." I reluctantly said to her.
"A surprisingly simple solution." Juna said.
"It is." Multiplicia chuckled with a nervous laugh. "So this is what it took to break the awkward silence?" She asked and shrugged, sounding nonchalant.
"Perhaps." Juna said.
I smiled as I noticed that me stepping in, although it was an accident helped to cut through the tension and awkward silence between two people who likely have complicated feelings towards each other but crossed paths yet would’ve regret not saying anything.
"I'll skedaddle if you need me to. I'm well aware I have quite the reputation that the new guy doesn't trust me." Multiplicia said, sounding concerned. She took a couple of steps forward past the table.
"The new guy..." I said pointing to myself "Is Damien. If you're not here to start a fight, then I'm not either." I said, dropping the hostility from my voice. She stopped walking and turned towards Juna and me again.
"Agreed." Juna said.
"Thanks for the introduction, Damien. I, Multiplicia Fernández-MacAlister, though you can call me Multi, have been busy as a bee you see and just finished a lot of work with the Great Iron Smithing Crew." Multi introduced herself. She posed and sounded confident.
"I see, Multi. What brings you here though?" I asked.
"I'm here on a break to show solidarity with the Programmable Darling Patrol and their newest member. It's also been lovely to go to The Ship Deck again." Her voice sounded heavier this time. She sounded wary and tired but accomplished when she explained this.
"Solidarity between teams, huh? That fits in to what I know. I met Gerald when I arrived in the PrDP headquarters and I think he said something that was similar."
"I hope he hasn't been causing you too much trouble when you met him."
"He mostly just snarked with Piper and Polyxena." I flatly said.
"That sounds just like him!" She laughed.
"It does, but you're being more straightforward than usual!" Polyxena blurted out in a joking tone. She approached us.
"Well you look quite stylish and aren't violating any dress codes since your stint at Relay Memorial." Multi snarked, and I noticed she stumbled a bit but kept herself from falling.
Polyxena looked embarrassed for a few moments but retorted "Only because people in The Bell Tower dressed like it was still the Beta Era!" She then glanced at Multi and snarked "It's okay to admit that you miss that gig and are frustrated I stayed longer."
Multi was stunned for a few moments. "Your speaker unit runs just as much as ever." She snarked.
Juna loudly clapped once. It was enough to startle both of them.
"Thank you." I said to Juna. "I was also going to ask if you noticed I was still here." I said to the now quiet snarkers.
"A simple but effective method to de-escalate an argument, but I'm afraid your effort may be in vain." Multi said, pointing towards someone. Juna turned around to see who was being pointed to and I immediately looked in the same direction. It was Piroska.
She was walking towards us. She had a red and purple ribbon in her hair, and was wearing a two-toned purple sleeveless gown with red buttons, long black gloves, and red dress shoes. She was wearing a lighter purple shawl over her gown which had a round brooch with a burgundy bowtie. Her gloves also had burgundy trim, and she was wearing a black necklace with a burgundy and red flower motif on it. The sash of her dress also had a burgundy and red flower motif pinned to it; the sash had an alternating red and purple pattern with black edges.
"Hey! I'm just taking a short break. Have you been having fun?" She stopped by the tables first and asked the rest of the group. After she quickly chatted with them for a few more moments, she approached Juna, Polyxena, Multi and me.
"Hey Multi- I wasn't expecting for you to be here just yet but I'm in a hurry and need to talk with Damien." Piroska said.
"Sure. I should be heading back anyways before I crash." Multi politely said and walked away to the cafeteria area.
"What is it?" I asked Piroska.
"Could you come to the backstage area? Valencia wants to challenge you." She whispered to me.
"I'm not ready for that!" I said in a hushed and panicked tone. "I told her before I'm not ready to duel."
"Not that for now. She wants to challenge you to public speaking!"
I still shuddered and grimaced. "That doesn't sound like it'd be much easier." I said then sighed. "I've done public speaking before in college, and at my job I had to do presentations about the changes I wanted to make to software before. I'll give it a shot."
"That's the spirit!" She cheerfully said, and I followed her out of the cafeteria area.
We walked through the halls towards the front doors of an auditorium and talked along the way.
"So what did you think riding in a hover car for the first time yesterday?" Piroska excitedly asked me.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but it was outta sight!" I told her, hardly able to contain my excitement.
"I was so stoked too when I saw them for the first time!" She said, sharing in my excitement. There were questions I wanted to ask her about how she adjusted from living in the human world to Techlandia, but we just approached the entrance to the auditorium and our next task was just behind that door.
A pair of large doors were in front of us with fancy lighting and large framed posters on each side of the door. The posters were for the event with some text about it, the team insignia was displayed on the poster and the team members, but with Valencia as a silhouette.
"She wants to keep some things a surprise, doesn't she?" I observed.
"Aww yeah, it'll be unreal*!" She excitedly said, and opened the door. (*1960's slang for something unbelievably cool or awesome)
"We're here!" She waved to Piper, Olympia and Valencia.
I also waved towards them but my arm felt heavy, and I couldn't easily smile. "Th— That uniform... This is unreal!" I muttered in an astonished tone, and I briefly stumbled back but caught myself before I fell down.
"She's one of them?! No way... I can't believe it..." was one of the thoughts I had while I stumbled again when moments later, I fell to the ground.
When I woke up, I was still on the floor, but I was propped up against a wall. My head didn't hurt. "What a relief." Olympia said. "Piroska caught you from hitting the ground, but you were still out for a few."
"Awww... I'm sorry." She apologized to Valencia and me. "I expected this meet-up to be the awesome "bad"*, not bad bad!" (*Wordplay on "bad" sometimes means "awesome" in 1960's slang)
"It's okay. I didn't expect it either." I said. "You’re in one of the sector's Warrior guilds. Your uniform— it matches what I saw on TV— and I also met her..." I told Valencia but my words started to trail off.
"He met The Great Over-complicator and she inferred he's a new OS without telling her." She nonchalantly explained to Olympia, Valencia and Piper, moving both of her hands in a dramatic gesture. Piper looked astonished, then looked like she was thinking over something.
"Awww so you didn't use my strategy." She said, sounding slightly disappointed. "If you used it to blend in though, you might not have heard Polyxena's stories as clearly. It's a trade-off." She chuckled.
"Neat-o! What kind of juicy tales did she tell you about?" Piroska asked me.
"Well..." I hesitated, but she still looked curious. So did Piper, Olympia and Valencia. The spotlight was on me, that even the subject of the debut party was paying attention when the clock on the wall continued to tick forward. I could feel the anticipation with every second. "I was told about— I was told about your debut party in the Rowdy Shark Tank!" I blurted out.
"Oh wow..." Valencia said in an amused disbelief.
"Oh my..." Olympia said. I assumed she was feeling secondhand embarrassment.
"Who told you that?" She asked me. She looked as mortified as Juna was when Etta asked who wanted to tell the story. All eyes were on me again.
"Etta did, and Polyxena told the story--" I said it didn't feel right to leave it at that. "It was brought up all because I asked if everyone had their debut party here, and I was curious about the Rowdy Shark Tank when Etta warned me about it. I'm sorry and I was part of the problem." I added.
"She doesn't always know when to keep her speaker unit shut, and I'd say the same for Polyxena." Piroska sighed and grumbled. She looked towards me, and I shuddered.
"If I knew they were going to share that with you, I wanted to be there to join in the laughs!" She said in a lighter tone and laughed. I smiled with relief.
"It was a screw-up in some ways, but there's a reason I don’t regret it!" She laughed.
"Really? What is it?"
"Oh, you’ll find out when the time is right."
"That'll be later because right now, I challenge you to public speaking for my rehearsal!" Valencia said, pointing at me.
"What would I need to do?" I asked.
Olympia brought over two sets of clipboards, and handed one to me and one to Valencia. It looked to be a copy of her speech.
"You'll take turns presenting it on the podium, while we listen and rate your speeches at the end. You can make changes from the script while you're speaking in the second round." Olympia said. She, Piper and Piroska were seated.
Piper had her guitar on her lap and started playing a melody to set the stage for what was to come.
"In the next run, the starting order will be reversed." Olympia added. She and Piroska had clipboards with them and were prepared to write.
I pulled a coin out of one of my pockets. "We could decide with this." I offered. I looked at it again, wanting to take a closer look at how currency from here looks similar, or differently from what I saw in the human world. The coin in my hand was metallic and about the same size as a quarter. It was silver with an orange edge. I saw a few other coins that had different colored edges. The design on it had a depiction of a rugged coastline and forest on one side.
"Which side do you call? The clock is ticking." Valencia said.
"Right, I'll call heads." I said.
"We call it the emblem side. The other one is the portrait side. I had to learn that too!" Piroska said.
I flipped the coin over in my hand. There was an emblem that I saw before. It was for The Ship Deck. "I still think that's interesting and I wonder if it'll ever change. In the Human World, coins and bills usually feature a person on the front and in some countries, the "head" side is of the current leader or figurehead of the time, and bills and coins are minted with new designs when there's a new leader or figurehead." I said.
"Huh? So they could be prepared to change it all, at any time?" Piper asked.
"Yes and there's a process for it." I said and paused for a few moments as a memory came back to me. I remember now. "There was a friend I had from one of those countries and she showed me some of these when we still knew each other in person." I said, but then a wave of sadness hit me as I thought more about it. When this friend moved back, we still called each other and wrote letters, though the calls were special occasions due to the cost. Now I left without saying anything and I'm not sure if I can ever tell her.
An image of the portal that took me to Techlandia was in my mind again. I thought back about what happened, and remembered I had a few moments to speak a few final words then. A coworker heard me. I had a final request and I wasted about asking my roommate to stop drinking milk from the carton, when it didn't matter. I wasn't going to be there! I should've told that coworker to call that long-distance friend and tell her I suddenly had to relocate. There was no guarantee I would've had enough time to say it or that the coworker would remember to do that, nor whether he was willing to, but the intent would've been less selfish than I was.
"That explanation was interesting and all, but you went silent and time is ticking!" Valencia bluntly said, pointing to the clock.
I snapped out of it and looked at the clock. "Sorry, I was thinking about something, but I'm thinking about this now!" I said more enthusiastically, pushing out the memories and regret for the moment.
"Excellent!" Piroska said. She stepped up to borrow the coin, flipped it in the air and gracefully caught it in one hand. "It's the emblem side! Damien goes first!" She said.
I walked over to the podium with my copy of the speech while she went back to her seat. When everyone was seated, recited the speech with the exact wording, but did my best to convey the varying emotions behind it. In the speech I learned that Valencia had her own regrets mixed among the hopes and boasts she wrote about.
Everyone applauded when I was finished, and I headed to one of the seats. Valencia stood up and walked over to the podium.
The judges shared their notes about our performances out loud. They observed that both of us stumbled during parts of the speech, but they ruled that my performance had the edge overall.
"I'm not going to give up! You heard just the beginning of what I'm capable of!" Valencia boasted.
"I want to see it, I'll do better too!" I boasted. I didn't think I'd be so excited about a public speaking challenge but her eagerness to keep getting better at the speech is contagious.
The second round began and it was her turn. She didn't stumble with it as much; only a few times that I noticed, and I heard changes from before. The rest of the group and I applauded after her speech.
"That's better but I can still do better." She said and walked back to her seat. "Your turn." She said to me.
I walked up to the podium again and recited the speech; I didn't make any changes to it but I focused on a clearer delivery and matching the hot-bloodedness she had at the end of her speech.
She and the rest of the group applauded. I went back to my seat while the judges shared their notes.
"We give Valencia a slight edge on this." Piper said. "Piroska didn't because Valencia is her student. I talked that over with her too."
"Alright!" Valencia cheered.
"Damien, you still did a good job with yours, but the refinements that she made to her notes stood out against this draft." Piper explained.
"Thanks, but I hesitated to change anything because this is her speech, about her hopes and regrets. Would it have been fair for me to make any changes to the words?" I asked.
We talked this over and Valencia wanted to challenge me for a few more rounds. She thought I was holding back if I didn't try to adapt the wording for her to further polish her script.
In the rest of the rounds, I tried to adapt the wording to give her more of a challenge.
"You can like public speaking after all, when it's framed the right way." Olympia cheerfully said. She flipped through her notes that she took during each round.
"I guess I can." Valencia nonchalantly said. "Having someone to challenge makes it more exciting. Thanks for accepting my challenge." She said to me.
"You're welcome!" I said.
"We can rest for now, and you can return to the table. Thank you for your participation!" Olympia said.
I started to walk towards the backstage door but turned around before reaching the door. "Valencia, I wish you the best of luck with this!" I said.
"No! No!-- You don't want to wish that!" Piper exclaimed. I was suddenly confused.
"Why is that?"
"It's unlucky!"
"I've been told something similar in the Human World." I said. I remembered now. "I remember being told to tell my friends that were in acting to break a leg."
"Here we say "fry a circuit", but how funny there's a similar saying in the Human World!" Piper said to me.
"Fry a circuit!" I said to Valencia and waved to her before I left the room.
"Fry a circuit!" Piper joined in.
"How was it?" Etta asked.
"It was tough, but fun and maybe the challenge helped." I said. "It took a lot out of me though." I went to the cafeteria area to order something that looked good since I could feel that my stamina meter was running low. I wouldn't have wanted to run out during the speech!
