Steampunk CTs

Months began to fly by after our mock battles and before we knew it, it was the end of the year. Not only that, but we were halfway through our training as counter-terrorists. Although…things have been pretty slow lately. We don’t even get to use our stematas as much. We just have one practice course every month. Every other day, we’re studying, listening to lectures, and…taking tests. Just thinking about them makes me shiver. Ori and everyone else predicted a test was going to be today, so I was pretty surprised when Instructor Matthews didn’t have his usual stack of test copies on his desk. Instead, he had an announcement for us.

“You all will be going to the New Dawn festival that will be held at HolyLand.”

“What’s the New Dawn Festival?” I raised my hand.

Derris turned to me and started teasing, “You’ve gotta be joking. You don’t know about one of the country’s biggest holidays?”

“Nope!”

“Do you even know about Taramas?”

“Nope!”

“Or Aegis Day?”

“Nah!”

“Or even Bountfest?”

“Derris, you’re making that one up!” I frowned.

“So he already forgot why we were in zone two huh? Haha…” Anna chuckled as she hung her head.

Ori sighed, “Sorry that ever since we landed on your welcoming shores, we were put to work without rest for the past ten years.”

“You could at least have the decency to dabble in our culture!” Derris rose from his seat.

“Oh of course! Because there’s sooooooooo many people reaping the job opportunities here at the springboard for the BCT!” Ori rose from her seat and gestured towards the mostly empty seats, save for the ones occupied by the rest of our very small class.

“If you don’t sit your asses down, I’m putting you both on temporary leave!” The Instructor slammed his fist against the chalkboard and Ori and Derris immediately sat back down. Instructor Matthews cleared his throat and began to explain.

The New Dawn Festival is a party that originated from the first year of the country’s creation. For months on end, there was no food to be had and the crops weren’t providing enough to feed everyone. Throw in a winter that seemed to never end and the Holian people truly thought that the end times were upon them. In a fit of hopelessness and mass hysteria, the Holian people partied all throughout what they presumed to be their final night.

“But then it was said that Taramos willed the sun to rise and with twice the power. When it did, all snow melted and the crops rose twice as fruitful. The real answer is that spring came in. Holians had no prior farming experience back then, so when we were taught such things by the Rosarian people, we tried it and thought we failed until that day. Now, we party until the clock strikes midnight to offer up our prayers to a fruitful harvest.”

“Isn’t this the second holiday with food being the center stage?” Gollie asked.

“I see absolutely no problems there~” Ori looked like she was daydreaming about the different types of food that would be at the festival.

“Besides, this is more party-themed! There’ll be games to play and rides to go on. They put up the rides near the edge of zone one.” Anna mentioned.

“So…why exactly are we going to the festival?” Rono raised his hand sheepishly to ask.

“When the New Dawn Festival was made into a national holiday, the BCT made it their duty to patrol the area and protect the people from terrorist activity. When terrorists eventually did attack, the BCT disposed of them with ease. Ever since then, terrorists steer clear of the festival out of fear. Now it’s a tradition for the trainees of a zone to help keep the peace. The staff also takes part in ‘stage battles’ where you guys go up against employees dressed like textbook villains.”

This sounds like fun! I can’t wait to try out all of the different rides and treats! I’m sure Ori’s gonna appreciate all of the stuff to do there. Besides, this’ll be the first time we’re doing work on official CT business! No vigilante justice or anything like that.

“Today’s class is to have you all coordinate between each other on how to run security. You can use the room for however long you like. Good luck, everyone.” The Instructor left us to our own devices and we began to discuss.

“I already thought of the logistics,” Ori said. “There are four areas: Triana land, Acupos land, Holia land, and the park entrance. So to divide the labor equally, we’ll guard the areas in pairs. Derris and Rono are patrolling Acupos land, Jack will patrol Triana land, Anna and Gollie will do Holia land, and Arno and I will guard the entrance.”

Sounds like a plan! I couldn’t really imagine anyone having an issue with how the work was divided—

“This is complete BS.” Derris said. “I’m not working with Rono. I already had to deal with his inadequacy during the mock exams and I won’t do it again.”

“Inadequacy. I didn’t know that you had a word like that in your vocabulary. Good job!” Ori clapped for Derris and he stood right back up in anger.

“What the hell is your problem?!”

“Listen, if you don’t like it, we can have a vote. Everyone: raise your hand if you have an issue with the current setup.”

Derris shot his hand straight into the air and looked around to see who was with him. Sadly, not a single person was on his side. It only made sense. Now that I think about it, these results were decided on way before today’s class.

===

“Thanks for coming today everyone. And a huge thanks to Arno and Ori for providing the venue for the meeting.” Gollie greeted everyone.

A week before today’s class, Gollie wanted to chat with Ori, Rono, and I about something. We decided to invite everyone to Mr. Terrance’s house since it’s more spacious. Not long after deciding the time and place, we met up.

Before telling us the topic of the meeting Gollie took a deep breath. “Guys…I'm going to ask Annabelle out at the end of the New Dawn festival.”

“Lucky…” Rono let out a heavy sigh.

“New Dawn Festival?” I tilted my head in confusion.

“You’ll learn about it soon, Arno. But what’s your reason for telling us this?” Ori asked.

“Well…a part of me just wanted to tell someone so I have more of a reason to go through with it. Besides, can’t you guys help me? I’m gonna need something nice to wear and a different type of cologne. Maybe even a haircut!”

Ori gave in after hearing Gollie go down a laundry list of things to do. “Fine, Fine. We’ll help you. I’ll go ahead and make a list of the divided workload that pairs you and Anna. It might come down to a vote so when it does, everyone here needs to take my side.”

“Sounds good!” Gollie nodded profusely in agreement.

“Perfect. Afterwards, we’ll go out and run down that laundry list of yours.”

“Thank you SOOOOOOO much, Ori! I don’t care what Derris or Rono says about you! You’re a good person!”

“Wait, what has Derris been saying about me? What has Rono been saying about me?!” Ori snapped her head over to Rono and he shielded himself from her potential fury.

“It’s just that you can sometimes…kinda…be a bit pushy. A-and guys don’t like pushy women, ya know?”

Ori slammed her hand against the table “Well I don’t like guys that don’t like ‘pushy’ women! Besides, I know what I want in life, so what’s the issue with me skipping all the nonsense and games?!”

Rono avoided all possible eye contact and got a little more bold in his claims. “Ironic for you to say that, given how long it’s taking you to—”

“Oooooookay! Meeting adjourned! We’ve chatted about this long enough! Get the hell out of our house!”

===

I let out a pensive sigh.

I feel pretty bad for him. Maybe I should tell him…

Before I could act though, my fear of Ori scolding me overrode all feelings of guilt I had.

“I doubt we’ll have to go over the details any further. Majority rules, after all.” Ori gave a coy smile before patting Derris on the back.

“With all of that sorted out, I say we call it for today.” Ori dismissed everyone.

As we walked out of the academy and everyone said their goodbyes, Ori and I ran through several different alleyways to meet Gollie on his way home so Anna wouldn’t see us with him.

“Alright, Gollie! Are you ready to go from a nine to a ten?!” I started to pump my fist in the air to hype him up.

“Y-yeah! Uh…how do we go about doing that?”

“Um…Ori! Take it from here!” I pointed over to Ori and she sighed before taking out a notepad.

“As it stands, you have a 27% chance to secure the relationship. Firstly, we’re gonna get something nice for you to wear. That should increase your chances by a solid 15%. Then, you’ll go get a haircut. That should be another 30%. After that, we’ll seal the deal with a gift. Depending on how materialistic she is…”

I pulled Gollie aside as Ori was going on and apologized. I didn’t expect Ori to get so technical with everything. I don’t think overanalyzing stuff is gonna help, so I’m gonna do what I can to help him out myself without getting in Ori’s way.

Once Ori finished, Gollie nodded, pretending as if he was listening the entire time, and the three of us went to the first store.

When we walked in, we were greeted by a man with a bald head and neatly trimmed mustache. He kind of reminds me of Instructor Matthews.

“Welcome to Pacedonia! The clothing store with the best selections for your average Holian. What can I do for you today?”

Ori told me the other day how Pacedonia has preset styles that you can mix and match from which put it leagues ahead of other clothing stores that expect you to put together an outfit. They even have these statues with clothes on them that you can look at to see how they would fit on someone around your body type. It’s kind of creepy, honestly. They don’t have faces…

“We need something for my friend here. He’s going to the New Dawn Festival so maybe something…business casual?” Ori suggested.

“Splendid! Business casual.” The man presented a notepad and began to write down our request, but I shook my head.

“There’s no business happening at the New Dawn Festival! Make it purely casual!”

“Got it! Purely casual!” He nodded.

“Arno, business casual is a mix between high-end stuff like suit jackets and low-effort things like jeans. It’s not actually like that. Please stick with business casual, sir.”

“Understood…Business casual!”

“Uhhhhh Dark Academia! Grunge! Indie!” I started naming random words I saw in a fashion magazine the other day.

“Um…would you perhaps like to look at our catalog instead? It could help you make an easier decision.” He closed his notepad and presented a catalog. Ori smiled, took it, and huddled Gollie and I up.

“We’re going with business casual, right?” Ori said.

“Depends, what does business casual look like?” I asked.

“Arghhhh! I knew it! You don’t even know what you’re talking about!” Ori clutched the sides of her head in frustration.

Ori and I began to flip through the catalog and hold up the sample pictures next to Gollie. None of them looked right on Gollie. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like whatever we tried to throw him into, he gave off the vibes of an undercover cop poorly blending into a scene.

“Maybe we’re not the best for this…” Ori shook her head in disappointment. “Shopping time! Shopping time!”

The doors for the store swung open and a little girl with long, curly white hair walked into the store with…Derris! And now he’s looking this way!

I exchanged looks with Ori, but she just shook her head. “If he asks, we’re all buying stuff to wear at the festival.”

Easy enough. That way, he doesn’t ask questions about why we would be helping only Gollie buy stuff.

“Hey! That’s the guy that beat you in the race, Derris!” The little girl singled me out.

“He sure is, sis…” Derris wore a smile, but I could tell that he wanted to wring my neck out.

When they walked over, Gollie asked what he was doing here and he explained that he promised his little sister Louise that he would take her shopping. That’s when Louise saw us holding the catalog and started to scoff at us.

“Amateurs.”

“Excuse me?” I looked down at Louise and Derris scolded her in response. “What did I tell you about being so cocky?”

“You’re one to talk… Ori muttered.

“Sorry about that. She wants to be a fashion designer when she gets older, so when she sees people struggling with fashion, she makes fun of them sometimes. We’re working on it though.”

“I can help you if you want, sir!” Louise tugged at my shirt and I accepted her offer.

“Oh, that’d be great! Could you also help my friends here?”

“Sure!”

Louise then put the three of us through trial and error with different outfits. All of them were from different styles of the catalog and didn’t seem like they were matching at all, but when I looked at Derris, he gave me an assuring nod. He had complete faith in his sister and I didn’t want to try to break that faith, so I let her continue.

She broke all of us off and asked different questions to learn about our personalities as well. After she got all of the information she wanted, she went around the store collecting different items and went over to checkout. When we tried to stop her, Derris put his hand in front of us.

“This is good for her.” He said as he looked over at her giving some of her allowance to the cashier. “She’s made lots of improvements in her craft. She picked out a more athletic outfit with warmer colors for Arno because she heard about his more active nature. She even kept your purple hair in mind when deciding on the entire ensemble. She could probably dress any Haustorian she came across with the right amount of info.”

“You made some improvement too. You don’t call Haustorians parasites anymore,” Gollie said.

“Apparently I haven’t improved enough. I didn’t get my father’s stemata, after all.”

That reminds me. Way back during the mock exams, Derris mentioned a rapier that could cut through anything with ease. Jack called it a “glorified hot knife.” But when we were at the training grounds, he had a greatsword. I guess his dad doesn’t think he’s ready for the stemata yet. I wonder why?

Ori’s eyes darted back and forth between Derris and I until she finally spoke up. “Are you guys serious?! It’s because he’s an arrogant elitist! You’re an arrogant elitist! That’s why you’re not getting that stemata!”

“No, that can’t be it. The Foxtrot family is known for their elitism. For it to be that simple…nah. I won’t even entertain it.”

“But that’s the whole point! You’re so far up your ass, you’re a detriment to others!”

“More like others are a detriment to me!”

“Oh! There it is!” My eyes lit up as I noticed what Ori was talking about. “You need to work on that, Derris.”

“You need to work on not being such a dumbass!”

“Arno is completely fine! His dumbassery doesn’t get in the way of a mission!” Ori cupped my chin in her hand to show me off. “I don’t know if you remember, but he's the guy that helped save zone two during the coup!”

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one! All of us were there! He just got the most flashy role! Anyone could’ve done what he did!”

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Out of nowhere, Louise dropkicked Ori right in her shin.

“Oww! Control your sister!” Ori jumped on one leg while holding her shin.

“No bullying big brother!”

“By the way, we’re supposed to be wearing our uniforms tomorrow. I don’t even know why you guys are bothering to buy clothes for the event.” Derris shook his head.

“W-we are?” Gollie looked as if his heart sank six feet under.

“Why didn’t you mention that earlier?!” Ori looked like she was about to rip her hair out.

“It’s good practice for Louise!” He then grabbed onto his little sister’s hand and said, “We’ve had enough fun, Louise. Hand everyone their items.”

“Kay…” Louise then handed all three of us our own bag of clothing and waved us goodbye as she left the store with Derris. “Bye, race guy! Bye, mean lady! Bye, giant guy!” Ori and Gollie looked as if they were utterly distraught. I was just happy to get some free clothes.

“M-maybe there’s still time!” I could hear the desperation in Ori’s voice as she ran out of Paceonia and we followed.

As we entered the streets of zone one, we noticed the setting sun and street lights suddenly turning on. Just how much time did we spend there? We have to wake up early for class tomorrow right before the festival, so we won’t even be able to do the other things we aimed to do without losing sleep.

“Well Gollie, we tried our best. Sorry we couldn’t handle everything else for you!”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll still go forward with the plan. It’s just a bit sad we couldn’t get much done today…”

I did a slight bow as an apology as I began to walk away. Ori stood in place right next to Gollie.

“Hey Arno, I’ll meet you back home. I’m gonna chat with Gollie for a bit.”

“O…k?” I was slightly confused, but I let her be.

What was so important that she needed to talk to Gollie one on one? I wondered as I began to walk home, but just concluded that it was probably something small. Like some advice about how to ask out Anna. I’m so excited for him. I hope things go well between them!

Ori

“I’m going to ask Arno out tomorrow.”

“W-what?! Where did these feelings come from?! How did they come?! When?!”

“Are these all questions that you sincerely have? I feel like it was very obvious.” I put my hand to my chin, thinking about all of the times Arno made my heart race around other people.

“Anyway…I’ll see you tomorrow.” I turned around and began to walk off. As I did, Gollie called out to me.

“But why did you bother telling me of all people?”

“Because.” I waved goodbye and kept walking. “This way, I have more of a reason to go through with it. There’s also the concept of Mutually assured destruction. If you snitch on me, I’ll snitch on you!”

That’s right. I’ve kept these feelings bottled up for a long time. Before we both went into the academy. Even before we got into this country, I’ve loved Arno. And not just a simple playground crush. Everything about him makes my life that much brighter. If the New Dawn Festival ushers in new beginnings, I want one of the beginnings to be a new phase of our relationship. I’ve decided! I’m going to put my heart on the line for him! It all starts tomorrow!