Content Warning: Part of this chapter recounts the toxic social environment that was featured in chapter 2 and talks of surveillance.
There may also be mood whiplash between a serious part and light-hearted part of this chapter.
"The things I do for the sake of knowledge..." Marcia silently grumbled. She held the cassette tape in her hands, and fortunately for her she was still wearing her anti-interference gloves. From the safety of a closed door, she looked closely at the tape. Her excitement over possibly hearing more first-hand information, or a primary source, clashed like a wave against a wave of conscientiousness.
"The 'piece of intel' I mentioned is a cassette tape that someone dropped and from the label on it. I don't think it's a mixtape" Marcia messaged Phuong.
Phuong quickly replied "Are you unsure whether to take it with you?"
"I wanted to take it because it could be what we need as a starting point but now I'm not feeling so sure." Marcia replied. "I'm already an intruder now also a thief?" She added.
"I'd be having the same worries as you." Phuong replied with sympathy. "It's tough, but in this situation, I'd take it to copy the information and return the tape when and where you found it. If we can find out how to safely explore this universe, we could ask for information later. We could be free to explore and learn more."
Marcia thought over this message for a few moments. "I agree with you and worried for some of my team's counterparts of the glimpse I could see of them, but there are still a lot of unknowns." She replied, and put the cassette in a clear bag labeled 'Evidence' and put it in one of the pockets of her jacket.
"I'll be heading back to my team for a while but I'll share my notes when I visit you." She added.
Before she was ready to leave, Marcia closed that virtual chat window and opened another one with another OS she frequently talked to. Fear filled her for a moment as she saw unread messages from Regina asking where she was and to report back as soon as she could.
Her fear was over whether Regina's counterpart, the counterpart to the tough team leader that she knew, was in the security room and how she would've reacted if she spotted the universe-traveling curious gatherer of knowledge who was still by all accounts an intruder. Marcia silently admitted it to herself again; to her team's counterpart, she's an intruder they don't know of and that didn't get caught.
"The visit was a success but it was tense. I could hardly leave the room I entered in to avoid being spotted, but I gathered some intel." Marcia messaged Regina.
"That's a relief!" Regina replied after a few moments, as if this was the message she was waiting for during the past several minutes...
"I wish you would've messaged me immediately after arriving if you had the chance to safely do so." She added afterwards.
"I'm sorry I didn't do that" Marcia immediately replied. "I'll be heading back. I don't think I'd stand a chance if I got caught!" "I'm getting exhausted." She added in the chat.
"Will you share your findings immediately?" Regina asked.
"I plan to when it's more organized. Heading out now." Marcia replied.
She closed the chat window and pulled out a device from one of her coat pockets. The device looked nearly indistinguishable from a sleek smartphone at a first glance, though a status light at the top and the controls on the touch screen when it was on were a giveaway.
After a brief flash of light, Marcia re-appeared in a supply room, just where she started. It didn't look that different from the one she was in before. She stumbled out of it, feeling slightly dizzy but sighed and smiled with relief when she saw the halls; they had an Art Deco look to them mixed with 1980's aesthetics. She was back at CC.
The hallway floors were unmistakable; they were a black and white checkerboard with rainbow terrazzo edges along the doors and windows. The framed paintings looked familiar, and most notably to her is that it all looked more lively than the same area in the team's counterpart's headquarters.
She pulled up a chat window again and messaged Phuong. "I'm back at CC with that tape I found!"
"Wonderful!" Phuong immediately replied.
"I'll say more after I put these together, but I need to sit down and make sense of everything. There's so much!" Marcia replied.
"That's okay." Phuong replied.
Marcia smiled when she read the newest message and closed the chat. She closed the door behind her and sat down in a nearby chair to start collecting her thoughts. After a few minutes, she overheard footsteps that were heading in her direction.
She looked in the direction of the footsteps and saw that Regina was walking towards her. "No threats were detected around here today." She said to Marcia, and sighed with relief. "You're back."
Regina had lion ears and a mountain lion tail. She had wavy medium-length strawberry blonde hair and had blue eyes with pink highlights; she wore a silver headband with black gems on it. The sides of her hair were swept back and pinned with a white bow, and she was wearing a two-toned blue dress that reached just past knee-length with a voluminous skirt, dark gray tights and silver dress shoes.
Her dress had white lace along the bodice and hem, and a white bow with a sparkling black CC insignia brooch on it. Her skirt had a pale yellow galaxy pattern and was trimmed with white lace, and she wore white gloves and a dark blue bolero jacket that had black trim over it.
The outfit she wore was nearly comparable to Marcia's fancy outfits that she wore to venues, but Regina preferred to dress like this every day.
"I have a lot of notes. Would you want to decipher my handwriting since I was trying to write down so much?" Marcia sarcastically chuckled, then stumbled. She pulled a large collection of sticky notes from one of the oversized pockets on her coat. "I'll still need to sort through them."
Regina briefly looked at them. "No problem. I was just about to get ready to start a stream since there's no patrolling that needs to be done now." She said.
"Which game are you going to feature this time?" Marcia asked.
"Philosophy of the Assassinator." Regina said. She looked at Marcia's outfit and paused.
"Have fun. I hope your playthrough will be more exciting than hiding out in a hallway!" Marcia waved to Regina as Regina walked away to the recording studio.
"Fellow charioteers, fortunately there were no delays and we can get started!" Regina said, speaking into the microphone on the recording setup on the desk of the recording studio. She also changed into the appearance she used for livestreams; her hair was pink and reached to her waist, she was wearing a mint green dress shirt and matching skirt, a gray bowtie and a metallic silver jacket. She was also wearing a silver headset that had a sparkling black panel in the middle of it that matched her brooch on her shirt.
"Our journey continues to a new game today!" She spoke into the microphone, and launched a game on her computer. The title screen for it appeared. It was for Philosophy of the Assassinator. "One of my teammates inspired this choice!" She said.
Marcia was still seated in the hall. She had a notebook on her lap and several sticky notes to the side, and started rewriting the notes that she took onto the notebook in a more polished manner than the scribblings she hastily wrote down before, carefully adding the details that she remembered but hadn't written down. While she was writing, she wondered whether the universe she was visiting and Techlandia were linked somehow, and jotted down more notes.
She thought about the conversation she overheard from Pleiades' counterpart. "We've been lucky that Regina's successors have been so kind and they help the other remaining legacy members and I have a place here, but still some feelings that loom over me..." That line was part of a conversation that stuck with her.
"Regina's counterpart has the same first name as her, but her attitude is concerning. That Regina's successors were welcoming to the early members, but was she?" Marcia wrote in her notes. "Whom I assume is Pleiades' counterpart didn't seem happy. Mi-ho's didn't seem happy but tried to be cheerful and keep up morale." She wrote and started to organize the notes by each person she observed.
She noted that both of them spoke of patrol duty with a hint of dread, and spoke of their dislike of "The new rules". She winced when she thought again of the atmosphere of the room.
On another page, she started to jot down notes about 'the new rules': "...Which may be those surveillance measures I noticed there and likely other stricter rules than we have.
On yet another blank page, to leave a lot of space for each section of the notes, she started to write about another of the people that she overheard. "The volunteer." She wrote down, but was slower at it. Exhaustion was starting to get to her, but she sat up straight again to focus.
She thought about "the volunteer" again; someone she didn't clearly see, but only heard. Her profile must've been on the away screen of the attendance roster when Marcia looked, but only saw for a split second.
"Left with Pleiades' counterpart to meet a defector, and could've been allowed to leave. Yet she volunteered for the patrol mission immediately after returning. She also mentioned having a high 'merit score'." Marcia wrote down and shuddered. "The merit score thing. I have so many questions about that." She thought and was lost in thought enough to not react to the sound of approaching footsteps.
"Sup, Marcia. Are you alright?" Pleiades asked. Marcia was startled and immediately jumped back in her seat.
"I'm fine- I'm fine— I'm just writing down notes from my trip and thinking about it more." Marcia scrambled as she picked up her sticky notes and notebook.
She looked up and saw that Pleiades was wearing a buttoned-up knee-length blue trench coat that had a motif of 7 stars on the left sleeve; arranged in the rainbow colors plus white, and started with green as the first color; the top of her coat and the collar had studded spikes on it, and had a gray belt with subtle polka dots on it. She was a gray scarf, blue and black plaid trousers with two-toned medium and darker gray boots that had the CC insignia on them. She had long dark blue hair that was crimped along the ends, and had green streaks, had green eyes and was wearing glasses.
"That must've been quite a trip." Pleiades said. She chuckled but also sounded concerned.
"It sure was." Marcia said. "I'll share about it later, but it's one I certainly won't forget. How was yours and uhh... where was it again?"
"It was off the hook! Antares, Janice and I met up with Wolfgang who was staying in The Orchard for that big punk music festival and went to it. We also met Wanda, Wénjié, Priscilla, Lorraine and Marilyn there and we all went to an auction house where Wolfgang and Marilyn got into a heated bidding war." Pleiades cheerfully said.
"How fun! Who won it?" Marcia asked, sounding curious.
"Deidre did." Pleiades said flatly.
"She was there too? That had to be awkward." Marcia winced.
"Yeah... and it looked like she and Wénjié were going to re-enact their own rivalry." Pleiades shuddered.
"What happened then?"
"Wanda de-escalated it."
"Really? I'm glad she did." Marcia said as she glanced through her notes again. "Was the rest of the vacation good?"
"It was, though there was an argument that Wolfgang had with Antares and me."
Marcia's eyes widened when she heard this and she looked worried.
"It was just over which bar to go to for karaoke night."
"Okay— I was imagining something worse." Marcia hesitated but sounded relieved.
Pleiades briefly narrowed her eyes towards Marcia, but looked concerned. "Did your own trip end in a dud, or worse?"
Marcia quickly but carefully thought over how to respond. "It didn't, but when I was away, I overheard someone who was upset over a vacation with a friend that ended badly and there was an argument between them. The person I overheard and saw looked a lot like you— but that detail isn't relevant. Ugh... Why am I explaining this? It's just a coincidence, but I imagined you being like that person I overheard!" She said awkwardly.
"No worries! That trip to the bar went well except for the brawl that malware started."
"Now I’m worried again!" Marcia hissed then yawned.
"We're no worse for the wear." Pleiades shrugged. "I think Antares tried to speed run banishing one of her arch-nemeses though and might've succeeded!"
"Okay that’s good but— ugh— There's still so much on my mind despite-- I'm glad you and everyone you went with had a good vacation, but I should find something too."
Pleiades materialized a holographic window with a chat in it. "Kiah is about to host a tabletop gaming session, but you'd have enough time for a quick meal before then. Would that that be relaxing or add to the fire in your mind?"
"Wow. That is such an apt analogy for what I'm feeling!" Marcia laughed. "Well, I think I'll get ready for it!" She said. Marcia waved to Pleiades and started to head towards the conference room that the game was to be hosted, but she didn't make it there.
Later, she woke up again...
