This was a quiet day at the Programmable Darling Patrol headquarters. None of the usual boisterousness from Piroska and Valencia; they weren't here to see my training session today. Valencia would've wanted to challenge me, and Piroska would've wanted to supervise while cheering on the challenge.
Piritta was at the headquarters but the meetings she had with her students haven't been here.
Piper wasn't here to play music; she was rehearsing a song at the place of Valencia's debut party and most of the team were with her too.
My training session this afternoon was with Juna helping me continue practicing more of the basics. Polyxena stayed to monitor my progress.
The screen on the videophone in the training room flashed and rung. I pressed the button to answer the call, though reaching out my arm hurt again. "Owwww!" I let out.
"Dinner is ready." Piritta said over the videophone.
"Thanks!" I said. I was happy but still couldn't hide that I was in pain.
"Let Polyxena finish healing your arm first." Juna said to me.
"You sound like you're getting used to the food here!" Polyxena said with a chuckle. She put an herb concoction on a piece of cloth, enchanted it and wrapped the cloth around the injury.
"Yeah, I'm got used to the food looking different from what I knew and I like it! I also feel that healing salve working already!" I said.
"An injury?" Piritta asked, sounding worried.
"I sprained something in my arm and haven't started my training as a Mage yet" I flatly told her. I hesitated.
"There's no shame in that. It'll become easier with more practice, but this may be a good evening to rest because of the event ahead tomorrow." Piritta said. As tempted as I was to continue as soon as I could, I followed this advice.
After a few more minutes of waiting for the healing salve to work through the injury, we headed to the dining hall.
Juna, Polyxena, Piritta and I were the only OSes at the headquarters today. Some of the Developers were also away so the dining hall had fewer people in it than usual, but the dinnertime conversations were hardly any less lively.
"So Damien, this'll be your first chance to see what a public debut party is like!" Polyxena said. "Valencia will introduce herself on stage and demonstrate her skills, but there'll also be a lot of food, drink and music!"
"I'm glad for her, but I don't have to duel her as the public demonstration... right? She wanted to challenge me." I nervously said.
"There's no need to worry about that now; your training as a Mage hasn't even started yet. Her duels would most likely be with Piroska and Etta." Polyxena said.
"So there would be duels." I thought. "I'd like to see those to see more of how combat works, but from a safe distance." I said, briefly clutching onto my arm that had been sprained. "But I'll be fine."
After we were finished with dinner and everyone was putting the dishes into the dishwashers, I heard a knock on the door. "I'll get it." I said.
I rushed to the door and opened it. I was surprised to see Piper! "Hi! I'm back early since music practice was ahead of schedule!" She said while she walked into the headquarters. We walked to the kitchen where Polyxena and Piritta still were.
"Hello, Piper. I left some dinner for you and the rest of the team." Piritta said. "I just put it in the refrigerator."
"Thanks! I'll take it out while it's warm!" Piper said, taking out one of the wrapped plates of food from the fridge. "Did it feel unusually quiet here?" She asked with a laugh while she set it on the table, went to the kitchen and returned to the dining room with some utensils.
"A little bit but I assured my students we rescheduled our next meeting and that we'd still communicate over videophone." Piritta said.
"I'll be calling my students at The Bell Tower. Did you want to hear from them?" Juna asked us.
"It'll be nice to hear of your progress and to hear from them." Piritta said. Piper and Polyxena agreed.
"Yeah but would you be ready to introduce me to them?" I asked.
"Yes." Juna said. "Do you feel ready?" She asked me. "You're looking nervous about this."
"Maybe. I'd rather see how this goes." I said.
Juna turned the videophone in the kitchen on and started entering information into it on the screen. A far cry from the process of dialing for a number on a rotary phone, one digit at a time! I saw a glimpse of a call from that videophone before when Etta was calling Olympia, but seeing a videophone up close and working was astonishing.
"How much is that call going to cost?" I asked.
"These are a bit costly so I call on occasion but the price will keep going down as more research is done to make them more efficient." Juna explained. "But they're cheaper than they used to be thanks to the research going on at The Bell Tower!" Polyxena added. "That stint I had working there was delightful and calls got cheaper since then. I learned a lot about their role in Techlandia's communication systems, and met Juna!" She reminisced.
I paused for a moment. "In my world, long-distance calls are so expensive and they weren't on videophones either!" I explained.
Silence filled the room, and the looks that the others gave me looked like a mix of concern and pity.
"Humans are being scammed." Juna shook her head in disappointment. "So much money but not any video."
I agreed with them on that. "It wasn't from a lack of trying though. You reminded me that when I was a teenager I saw a demonstration of a videophone. I got up close to it. I tried it. It was at a huge event. I don't remember which one but I remember thinking that videophones were going to be the future, but I never saw them again for a long time except in a cartoon that had them and flying cars everywhere- and the streets were replaced by conveyor belts!" I started to ramble.
"Hahaha! We still don't have flying cars or conveyor belt streets, but do humans in your world at least have jetpacks or rocket boots?" Piper asked.
"Not in real life." I said.
"What?! What a shame!" Piper said with pity and frustration. "Sorry, Juna for holding you up from making that call!"
"No problem." She said to Piper. "There's more I can still explain but you might hear some of it from them." Juna told me. She entered the last details she needed into the videophone. I saw Piper and Polyxena step back so I stepped back. There was a message on the screen. "Calling..." It said.
We stepped back further so Juna could take the call by herself.
"Hello." She said, and briefly waved to the other person on the screen. "I'm reporting my progress. How are you?" She greeted the person.
"Hello. We've been continuing our research and it's going well. I helped several more programmers in one of my first big gigs." A person with a masculine voice cheerfully said.
"Congratulations!" Juna said.
"Thank you. It's an honor that All-Around Numerators and Great Iron Smithing Crew already offered me contract work."
"I'm so proud of you!" Juna said, still sounding as excited. "Are they taking you seriously?" She asked, sounding concerned and serious.
"Yes. All has been going well."
"That's good, but if they think they can take your work without credit, under-pay you for your work, or they're ungrateful, don't accept that. From any employer." Juna said, giving a warning.
"Of course. I won't settle for less." Her colleague on the screen said, and nodded.
"Is this something you saw happen before- already before that incident?" I asked Juna and approached her.
"Who's that?" The person on the other line asked. I immediately stepped back and flinched.
"I'm sorry I interrupted. I should've let you introduce me." I apologized to Juna.
"Hey, Polyxena and I are here too!" Piper stepped closer and waved to the camera before she stepped back.
"No problem. I was going to in the call. This'd still be a good time." She told me before she faced the screen again. "He's a new member to the team." She said, sounding excited.
"Will you introduce him?"
I walked towards Juna and stood next to her, and I waved to the other person on the screen, who I could clearly see now. The other person looked to be a man appearing to be in his mid or late 20's with scruffy dark gray hair with a slight beard, rectangular glasses, gray eyes and was wearing a button-down light gray shirt with a red and purple striped tie and gray slacks. Over his outfit he wore a black cape that was similar to Juna's that also had a pinned seashell brooch.
"It's nice to meet you, new guy. My name is Pilib." He introduced himself.
"Hello. I'm Damien. I was brought here from the Human World and became an Operating Superstar a couple days ago. Juna summoned and initiated me."
"She saw something in each of us. You're the first Awk from the Human World which is fascinating." He said with a smile. "How's your training been?"
"I successfully started with the basics. It'll be a long road ahead before I'm ready to debut." I said, sounding nervous at the end.
"That's where we all start." Pilib said and didn't sound judgmental. "It can be more difficult for humans to start because your form had to be converted."
I nodded in agreement. "What's it been like for you?" I asked.
Pilib thought about the question for a moment before he answered. "I was already an Engineer but few people believed in the plans I had even here. I was told my ideas were too risky and untested, but Juna liked them and invited me to join her team." He said. I nodded in acknowledgement out of sympathy and for how familiar this sounded.
"Hey! Did I hear there's a new Awk?!" Someone off-screen asked in excitement before stepping into view. "I speak for all of us when I say we're glad to see Juna make more friends during her research abroad. I'm Merete." She introduced herself.
Merete looked to be in her early 20's and had dark brown hair in a ponytail with long bangs parted in the middle. She had gold eyes, wore a beige striped turtleneck dress with a matching black cape and seashell brooch like her mentor and the rest of the trio, but she also wore a red bowtie with the cape.
"Hi... I'm Damien." I introduced myself. A few moments after I started talking, another person walked to the screen.
"Greetings. I'm Colby." He introduced himself, sounding more formal but still approachable. He was holding a clipboard with some notes in one hand. Colby looked to be in his late 20's to early 30's, had scruffy dark red hair with gray eyes. He, like me, also wore slacks with a white button-down shirt and a red tie, but he wore a red sweater over his shirt, and wore a matching black cape pinned with a seashell-shaped brooch like the rest of the trio and their mentor.
"Thanks for your warm welcomes. I hope you're not too crowded over there." I chuckled. The Bell Tower trio were standing right next to each other, making sure that I could see them on the screen.
"In the Human World, I was a software developer. A couple days ago on the job, there was a mysterious tape reel that I put in the computer." I began to tell them how I arrived in Techlandia. "It summoned me here!" I explained. The trio looked impressed to know that I was a software developer, but their reactions to me being summoned here were nonchalant.
"That's how humans from the Human World are usually summoned here, but those enchanted reels aren't placed at random." Pilib said.
"There's a method to it all. Juna was looking for someone with a software developer skillset." Merete added.
"It's not entirely precise. There remains an element of chance. If it hadn't been you who handled the tape, it would've been one of your coworkers in your department." Colby added.
"Who might not have wanted or been able to stay here. Not only was there something Juna saw about you, but you chose to stay." Merete added.
I nodded in interest. "Isn't it fascinating how our meeting came together?" I asked. The Bell Tower trio smiled and looked interested.
"If you want a serious answer to that, prepare yourself for a long philosophical discussion." Colby said with a slight chuckle.
"I'd be interested but wouldn't want to take up too much of your time, and this was supposed to be Juna's call." I said with a nervous chuckle.
"It's fine." Juna said to me. I glanced at her and saw her nod.
It's been only a few days since I arrived here, and there was already so much to think about that I wanted to ask. I had so many questions but decided to stick to one topic for our first call: "I didn't plan to stay here when I arrived, in a world unknown to me. What if I landed in the middle of nowhere instead?" I pondered. The trio quickly said something among themselves before I got an answer.
"That's an excellent question and your survival skills may have been put to the limits, but fortunately the summoning process prevents that from happening." Colby explained.
Yes, fortunately. So the process of being taken from the Human World isn't as chaotic as I assumed. "Are OSes and Developers the only people who can summon?" I asked.
"Yes." He said. I was assured.
"I chose to stay because everyone I met at the headquarters has been helpful and inspired me to do something even greater than I could imagine." I said. "I don't know much about what'll be ahead for me but I'm confident we'll succeed. We have our membership in The Awks and work together with the Programmable Darling Patrol." I added. The trio looked moved by my answer.
"Before I return the call to her, I want to say I'm glad I met you and for this path." I said and I waved goodbye.
"Nice to meet you, Damien!"
I stepped back and Juna stepped ahead to the videophone again to continue their conversation.
"I'm confident you and Damien will get along very well." Juna said.
Colby nodded in agreement. "His question showed an attention to detail and thinking over many possibilities." He said.
"Did you hear a news segment about a fight the Programmable Darling Patrol was in to stop armed malware?" Juna asked The Bell Tower Trio.
"You look surprised by that question." Polyxena whispered to me.
"Yeah. I wasn't sure if she'd want to bring that up after what happened." I whispered back.
"I was there too; the team and I worked together." Juna said.
"Were the civilians nicer to you than before?" Merete asked her.
"Somewhat. Some of them were thankful when I returned their items but there was one who didn't like that I returned her stolen handbag."
"So that person would've rather it stay stolen?" Merete asked, half-sarcastically.
"How ungrateful." Pilib added, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Maybe. She said my values were nonsense, that I didn't belong and wanted someone else to return it." Juna said with a sigh.
"Did Damien know about our reputation before he was initiated?" Colby asked.
"Yes. He knows the path to being an Awk is hard but still chose it. Despite how harsh the detractors in The Ship Deck can be, we're lucky that the team stands up for us. Piroska stood up to that ungrateful person and said something uplifting but a bit aggressive."
"That's Piroska for you!" Merete chuckled.
"Yeah. Despite those detractors, we need to and can keep moving forward." Juna said more cheerfully. For a moment she turned around. "There's a little more I want to wrap up with just them around." She said to the other OSes and I in the room.
"Sure, we'll give you space." Piper said, and she led Polyxena, Piritta and I out of the kitchen to the lobby to watch TV.
After about 15 minutes, Juna walked into the living room.
"Hey. This might be a good time to rest for the big day ahead tomorrow." Polyxena suggested.
"Agreed. Are there still preparations you'll need to make at the venue?" Juna asked her.
"I'm just going to be there as a medic." She said.
"I'll need to get up early to rehearse the music one more time." Piper said.
"I should rest." I said.
"Good idea." Juna said. The others agreed.
I walked back to the guest room which technically became my room now as long I'd be living here. A big day ahead with Valencia's debut party...
