I think I went a tad overboard.
I'd gone all the way up to the 12th guest floor because I saw that there was a bakery there. Its interior wasn't much larger than mom-and-pop shops you would see out in the city, but it certainly did not have the same budget as those.
Inside were displays of ornate wooden cases, holding different confections in each. The entire bakery smelled of baked bread and sugariness. I grabbed two maple-glazed hazelnut scones. However, one thing led to another, and my cravings got me an entire bag of pastries by the time I got to the cashier.
Although I hadn't, in actuality, used up a large chunk of my funds, it didn't mean the price wasn't expensive (I'm starting to see a pattern here). Like seriously though—just 5 items here totalled up to a whopping 132 AE (tax included)!
But I digress; I've got movies to watch! Of course, it's all in the name of "reacclimating myself to social life". Yeah. We only do productive things here.
…
After reaching floor B2, I was greeted by a collection of private mini-theatre rooms. Interestingly enough, this floor was unmanned by any staff. Instead, all one had to do was scan their keycard and "purchase" an allotted time for the room. For 10 AE (purchases are paid at the end of stay), I was able to acquire 5 whole hours of time; not bad.
I sat down on one of the recliners and began to scroll through the selection of movies:
[Starcross]
[Mack Candela 3 - Renatus]
[Normal Home]
…
The catalogue featured all sorts of films of diverse genres. I took a bit before I came across a title that caught my eye:
[Galactic Battle: The Saga]₍₁₎
I wasn't quite sure why, but out of all of the strange movie titles, this one struck a chord with me. It was a collection of 6 films, which meant that I would only likely be able to get through some of it given the length of each was just over an hour and a half.
…
The movie opened with a short crawl of text that definitely tried to make itself sound serious, but the moment the first scene unfolded, I couldn't help but notice how shoddy the movie was—the first two characters, Hogi-One and Pierst-Gone, were wearing almost-transparent sheets for robes… The one saving grace for them was that the effects masked their awkward movements during fights pretty well.
'...Or is it that they're using that "Sethnine" thingy?' Their weapons were clearly not designed to fire off sparks and glow as they did, but they integrated well into the stylized nature of the fights, which made me want to find someone who could get me one of those.
To still give it some props, the first episode did give me a pleasant surprise. The child actor for Glankist, Farthington Redsworth, gave an earnest and endearing performance that honestly kind of hyped me up for his growth.
However, my excitement was squashed as I realized that the later installments didn't feature the same actors, but different ones for when the character "grew up"; their performance fell terribly short from the initial build-up of Glankist as a hopeful but humble protagonist to someone who fell into the middle of a soap opera and decided to just go with the flow.
But damn it! I'm gonna use up my time for all its worth!
…
I somehow ended up tuning out a large portion of the exposition and other parts of the third and fourth episodes all the way until the long-awaited clash between Glankist and his son, Ruth, occurs.
"Why are you standing in my way?!" Ruth roared.
Their battle raged, their Sethnic Sabres ringing throughout the torn spacecraft, until Glankist was knocked down by a powerful propulsion.
BAM!
The impact was felt as tremors rocked my chair subtly. 'Wow, 4D huh?'
"No… You can't…" Glankist held his chest in pain,
"You can't marry her… She's your sister!"
Ruth was completely stunned by the reveal, "What...?"
"WHAT?!"—As was I. I nearly jumped out of the recliner as I pushed myself up using the armrests,
'That means those two were siblings the entire time? Is that what they're fighting over? And how did we get here???'
I grabbed the remote that fell to the floor and started to rewind the film.'Gosh, that makes all the previous scenes of Ruth and Maya so much worse!' I murmured frantically,
"I didn't miss anything crucial, did I?"
In the middle of my skimming, however, the screen suddenly blackened and large white texts were illuminated on it: "ALLOTTED TIME OVER. RE-SIGN CARD FOR MORE TIME."
'Oh, you've got to be kidding me…'
I wasn't about to buy another hour just to rewatch parts; it was already getting late. I got off of the chair and started kicking my legs (tired from not standing for too long).
After some time of stretching, I finally noticed that my inattentiveness was due to me being severely sleepy. It felt like a blur, but I managed to drag myself through the theatre lobby to the elevators and back up to my room.
I quickly changed back into the robes, and flopped onto the bed.
Poomf~!
I turned off the lights, and within a few minutes, I was sleeping like a log, blissfully unaware of what tomorrow would bring me.
…
…
I woke up like a complete mess the next morning. I'd been sleeping on my stomach with my face going to the side. I was also straddling the side of the bed with one of my legs, yet somehow I hadn't fallen off overnight.
"Ugh… What time is it?"
I sat up straight, my hair drooping down and draping all over my face. I parted my hair from my eyes as I tiredly watched the sunlight dispersing into my room. I then looked to my side.
[12:39 PM]
"Oh kuso!"
My eyes were wide open now. I sprang off of the bed, tossing the covers to the side and haphazardly putting on the hotel's slippers. I yanked the dresser-closet, pulling out my clothes and Nanik's business card.
'I hope he's not busy…'
I strode over to the hotel's telephone. It sat elegantly on the nightstand, its sleek chrome casing reflecting some of the light. I keyed in Nanik's number and waited for him to pick up,
Beep, beep… Ring… Ring…
["Nanik Iman. Who is this?"] The quality of the telephone made his voice even more gritty-sounding.
"Hey, it's me, Tokei. I'm calling from the hotel's telephone."
["Oh. Did you just wake up?"]
"N-no..!"
["..."]
"Yes…"
["It's fine. I'm currently occupied, so remember to go to this address after you've had something to eat…"]
I grabbed the hotel's pen and mini-notepad and wrote down the address that Nanik recited. It sounded like the location he wanted us to meet at was an apartment on an avenue.
"Is that where you're staying?"
Nanik replied, ["No, it's a friend's place. They owe me a favor, so I'm going to have them check on your mana system—and anything else pertaining to you."]
"Oh, alright. When will you be there?" I inquired.
["In about an hour,"] Nanik calculated,
["Actually, could you do something for me while you're there?"]
Uh oh. Is he finally asking me to do some sketchy deal? I've got to refuse while I can!
"I-I won't—!"
["It's very simple. Just ask her how old she is… Were you about to say something?"]
I coughed. "Nope. Just talking to myself." Sorry Nanik, I was affected by Hailey's delusions…
["If there's nothing else, I'll see you then."]
"Okay."
Click. Nanik hung up.
I stood in thought,'Perhaps his friend can provide me some leads. Anything is better than nothing, at this point…'
…
I got a clean and simple lunch from the dining hall: seasoned fluffy scrambled eggs topped with crispy bacon on toast alongside fresh fruits and a glass of water. I went to the reception desk with the carry-bag of leftover pastries in tow.
Segis, who received me yesterday, was still present. He looked at me and greeted blandly, "Good afternoon. Are you here to check out?"
"Yes… Do you work here all day?"
"No, madam. I just work afternoon-to-late-night shifts during the weekdays." Segis held out his hand,
"Card, please."
"Oh…" I think this guy might be a workaholic. Those are some insane hours he's clocking in. I handed over the room keycard while searching through my shirt pocket.
'I've still got to pay for the baked goods and movie watch-time… 2 Aero should do, right?'
After I passed along the two coins from my hand, Segis gave me a cursory nod before he inspected and stored them. He then produced five rhombus-shaped cyan coins and eight circular silver coins. "Your change is 58 AE."
5 Mira and 8 Arin. I could pay for a cab ride with that. Speaking of which…
"Excuse me, would you be able to call a taxi over here? I don't have a phone with me at the moment."
"I will call one right now, and you can busy yourself at the lounge. I will bring refreshments over to you in a moment." Segis replied while continuing to work.
I sat myself down on one of the sofas and crossed my legs as I curiously watched Segis working. His gaze, even from yesterday, always seemed to stay transfixed onto the monitors he was observing the entire time, aside from when other people approached him.
After welcoming and helping out a few incoming guests with their roomings, Segis kneeled down and reached for what appeared to be the cupboards on the opposite end of the desk. From them, he acquired two metallic bottles and something else. After opening the bottles, he poured them into the glass and gave them a whisk with a spoon.
He stood there for a moment before he exited from the reception desk, carrying a cup-sized glass with vertical fill lines in his hand. The glass was filled with a golden orange liquid.
Segis approached my seating area and placed the glass on the table with a coaster underneath.
"Your drink," he said. He held his black-gloved hand in a downward pinching gesture above the glass. Miniature clouds of mist started forming underneath his fingertips, perfusing subtly into the air as a nice and refreshing breeze.
Three small cubes formed, dropping into my glass. Plink. plunk. plink. They fell without creating so much as a small splash.
"Passion fruit and syrup," Segis called it.
"Woah… Did you just create ice?"
"No, madam, 'creating' ice is much more costly on Sethnic Capacity than simply manipulating the environment," he waved his hand, and mist cascaded behind as a trail,
"Water is nearly always in the air. What I am doing is what you would call deposition with transference magic." Segis nodded at me like I understood every bit of what he spoke perfectly, and without further note, he walked back to the reception desk.
I tilted my head in wonder at his explanation. 'It's very strange: Is Sethnine really magic or just weird chemistry?'
I picked up the slightly condensating glass and took a small sip from it. There was a strong and vibrant taste from it. The natural acidity told me that the passion fruit had been freshly squeezed—it wasn't overpowering, though, as there was an aftertaste of sweetness that came from the syrup.
After a few minutes of me having finished enjoying my refreshment, Segis called out to me, "Ma'am, your taxi has arrived. I hope you have enjoyed your stay."
"Yes, see you later."
As I walked outside and entered the taxi, I realized my mistake, 'Ugh… Why did I say "see you later"? It's not like I'll have the luxury of revisiting this place again…'
I'm sure that one moment is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
The cab turned right before entering a broad avenue, slowing as it came to the curb in order to park.
Paying my fare, I stepped out onto the sidewalk and took a look around. The opposite end of the street was lined with shrubbery and a few trees here and there, but the main focal point would be the large lake in the center of this part of the city.
'Wow… I can't even begin to imagine how much it costs to live around here.'
Turning my attention to the building before me, I took in its scale—roughly ten stories tall, with a muted color palette of sleek grays and black accented by touches of white.
As the taxi pulled away, I stepped inside, greeted by the soft chime of an automated sensor as the doors slid open.
'Let's see, the Tenth floor, was it? And room number 901…'
I made it to an elevator to the right of the entry that led me up to the tenth floor. When the metallic doors slid open, I saw that there were only two rooms on this floor, both of which were opposite each other.
I went up to room 901 and rang its doorbell.
Ding-dong…
From the other side of the door, I could hear what sounded like heavy objects crashing to the ground. Thump—shuffle, shuffle…
Click. The door cracked open just enough that I could see a face.
Peering from the door was a gorgeous girl who looked to be around my age. She had crimson red eyes and black hair done in a loose side braid; she was wearing a coffee-brown over-the-shoulder shirt.
Her snowy face looked up at me, her red eyes blinking slowly, "Sorry, I'm not interested…"
She tried to close the door on me, but I slipped a hand through just in time to stop her; luckily, she wasn't slamming the door, or else I might've had to pay another visit to that hospital. "Wait, please. I'm Nanik's friend."
"Oh…" She ran her fingers through her face and gave me a second glance,
"Ah! You're that Tokei girl~. Sorry for my rudeness, I'm Eve—please, come in!" She opened the door up for me and ushered me into her place.
The inside was very spacious for an apartment with an open-floor plan. The flooring consisted of a toned down grayish hardwood floor that spanned the entirety of the apartment as far as I could see. The living room which I had entered had two couches placed on a single toned dark gray carpet with a marble topped coffee table placed in the center. On the wall opposite to a couch was a super large TV that was attached to the wall, making it look as though it was floating.
"So, what's your deal?" Eve asked me as I was admiring the room.
"Hmm?"
She stared at me with vulture-like eyes, like a journalist who just found an inside scoop, "Are you Nanik's secret affair child?! Or, or—"
"H-huh?! It's nothing like that! Also, isn't Nanik too young to be my parent?"
"Buh—so he's fooled you, too. I'll be sure to give him a stern talking-to later!" She harrumphed and crossed her arms,
"Anyways, what're you here for?"
"...He didn't tell you?"
"—That's his modus operandi," she said, as if stating something matter of fact.
"Let's go to my office—you can give me more details there."
We entered another door into her office, but it felt like we were entering an entirely different building. The walls were painted a soft pink color and had white shelves attached to them. Each of the shelves was lined with cosmetic products from various brands. At the heart of it all was a large desk with a triple-monitor setup. A large camera and ring light could be seen peeking out from between the monitors as well as a microphone attached to a swiveling arm on the table.
"What's all of this for?" Seems like a lot of equipment for one person, if I was being honest.
"It seems like you don't know…" She brought the microphone towards her face and pointed at me with her index finger, winking,
"I'm one of Listaria's top White Sorcera makeup artists!"₍₂₎
"Sorry, but I don't know what that is…" I elucidated her to my circumstances.
…
"Oh man, no wonder," Eve said with shocked eyes. She took her phone out.
"Hold on, let me check something…"Snap~. It seemed like she just took a picture of me. She then typed something on her phone.
As she began furiously swiping up, I could see a frown becoming increasingly prominent on her lips. Eventually, she stopped scrolling, and showed me the phone's screen.
It was a post of a less-than-HD photo of me at the lobby of Annual Hotel, standing awkwardly and fidgeting with the map of my keycard. Underneath it were the captions: "Who is she??? 🫢🔥🔥🥰"
"You're such a pretty girl, so how come the only thing I can find about you online is this?!"
"I don't know…" I said meekly, lightly shrugging my shoulders. I was embarrassed at both her comment and the photo.
'I think the better question would be who took that photo… Can I get that taken down? My pose is not doing me any favors there…'
"But… I wonder, though," I voiced my thoughts aloud, taking my gaze away from the phone and looking at all of the stuff around her office.
Eve raised her eyebrows and bobbed her head, "Yes?"
"This job you do—surely it can't be sustainable, right? I mean, the older you get…"
I stopped speaking the moment I saw Eve's face become frigid. '...Erm, I didn't say anything wrong, did I..?'
Her face remained like that for a few seconds before she started laughing boisterously, "Y-you're so right! Alright, let's stop talking about that sore subject," she pointed at the office chair,
"Please sit down over here and place your arms on the armrests. I'll start evaluating you."
"Oh, okay…" After I sat myself down, Eve lugged another chair over with some difficulty. She faced me as she also got seated,
"Hold your hands out like this for me." She demonstrated by turning both of her palms flat and upwards, with arms straightened out. I reciprocated, imitating her.
She placed her hands atop mine, "Okie-dokie! I'll be transfusing my Sethnine into your vessels."
Looking down, I could see a somewhat-clear pink "vapor" forming between our palms. The vapor traced our hands, forming a slim bubble-like exterior that enveloped them.
Eve resumed, "Now, you may feel something like paresthesia, but that's totally normal. And don't worry—nothing will happen to you; I'm a bona fide Eminent Sorc—"
"Could you explain in more simple terms? Think like you're explaining to a toddler."
"Oh, right~. My bad, that was out of habit," Eve said while giggling,
"I'll be doing a thingy, and you'll probably feel a little weird. It will help see if your memory problem is related to magic!"
Okay. Maybe "toddler" wasn't the right word to say there.
Suddenly, I started feeling a prick that originated at my palm. It started to move, propagating upwards through my arms.
"Why's it so itchy?" I exclaimed.
"Right?" Eve agreed with me,
"…Though, it must be because you haven't put your vessels to use in a long while; it shouldn't be that itchy. Doesn't it feel like you're taking a walk on a sunny afternoon?"
No. It feels like something's crawling under my skin. What kind of walks do you have, lady?
The sensation continued to travel, but instead of spreading out like I'd feared it would, it coalesced at an area over the left side of my chest.
"Let me give you a quick rundown on things: Sethnine is normally intangible, meaning we can't see it with conventional sight or touch it. However, there is an organ in our bodies that facilitates the process of making it tangible. It's called the "Mansian"," Eve continued,
"It's like a secondary heart, but specifically for magic. It does what's known as "Sethnic Respiration", where it takes in unrefined Sethnine and converts it to the magic you've probably seen normal people and sorceras using every day."
"So you're pouring Sethnine into my magic vessel so it can get to the mansian?"
She corrected me, "—Almost. My mansian's already refined it, so I'm sending you refined Sethnine. Are you getting a feeling similar to heartburn?"
"It's tingling there a bit…"
"Okay! Please stand up, then—now, start taking deep breaths… Slowly-slowly!"
"What's this going to do?" I inhaled sharply. I wanted this irritating feeling to subside.
"This will help you release Sethnine from your mansian and kick-start it again. Your mansian has a limit, which is called the Sethnic Capacity, and I gave you around a half-dosage for average Neophytes—just a fancy word for a beginner."
I closed my eyes to concentrate, making sure that every cycle was as breathy as can be. 'In and out…'
"Hoo~…"
"Ha~…"
"Hoo~…" Snap.
"W-what was that sound?!" I yelped. I jolted my eyes open, but Eve was no longer in front of me—in fact, the whole place seemed to be gone... The floor and walls became replaced by different gradients of grainy white pellets spread evenly about. Between and beyond the grained dots, there was just an endless expanse of darkness.
Then, ripples were made in the fabric of the "air" in front of me that spread out in all directions. The ripple carried with it strange… Features? They were peculiar blue notes—or symbols.
They trailed past my side and beyond my sight.
<"Hey..! Are you alright..?">
I could hear a distant voice coming from the ripple, which I presumed was Eve's.
I turned around, watching as the symbols were carried away, becoming more red in coloration as it disappeared from sight.
"Can… Can you hear me?" I called out. It took a moment before I could "see" her response come through again,
<"Yes… I'm right… here… What… are you… seeing..?">
"My sight became weird… I-I—how do I stop thi—Ugh! " I groaned in pain as a relentless pulse hammered behind my temples, interrupting me.
It felt like a drum was beating inside of my head, exacerbating the pain with each bound. The grainy environment around me teetered in and out of view as my vision became hazy. I wavered slowly until my body became slackened.
Thud.
I could only hear the fading echo of my heartbeat as I slipped from consciousness…
…
…
#include
int main() {
std::cout << ">> Status: Active. All modules engaged.\n";
return 0;
}
console.log("Hello world,");
echo "I'm Neuro!";₍₃₎
Footnotes:
1. Author Note: The following depiction of "Galactic Battle" is a 'bad movie' type of parody of "Star Wars" and is intentionally horrible… Don't sue pls D:
2. "Listaria" is a social media platform. It is similar to platforms such as Instagram® and TikTok®
3. A few programming languages were used here: C++, Javascript, & Shell Script.