Chapter 117: Chapter 33: Elmyra and Zel's Day Off
'So, how do you stay out of trouble when you are out and about?'
As Elmyra and Zel took seats next to each other on the shuttle flying towards the entertainment and fashion district, Elmyra had to be the first one to open up the conversation as Zel is too focused on awkwardly moving his prosthetic arms out of the way so it doesn't budge into Elmyra. Zel looked up at Elmyra, her beautiful face being so close to him that his heart almost skipped a beat.
'I...used a mix of masks, different outfits and in the most extreme case, walk a little strangely.' Zel thought back to when he was on Spotlight station with total surveillance installed all around the station. He looked at Elmyra, who gave him a funny look, 'it's not as glorious as one might think.'
'Damn right.' Elmyra said.
'But you should be fine.' Zel said, looking at her as she looked down at the self camera on her personal interface to check her outfit, 'you are already very strong, and my power basically allows for an escape at all times, so if things gets crazy, I will just warp us all away.'
Elmyra didn't say anything, instead, she was fixing her short hair and pulling it backwards before tying it into a single tail, then she threw on the hoodie and actually just looked like a tom boy. The only things giving her away is probably her skin and her eyes, but with a pair of shades, it will work perfect.
'...Do I look good...?' Elmyra asked, looking down onto her feet.
Zel swallowed hard yet again as he opened his mouth and contemplated what he should say. After a little while of picking the best lines in his head, he finally squeezed out a word, '...yes!'
'Wow, that was difficult for you to say.' Elmyra chuckled and shook her head, 'just teasing you, Z.'
'Yeah...I could tell...'
The shuttle they are on are heading straight towards district 222, which are surrounded by six other districts that are all involved in the high fashion and entertainment industry. The two are tied intricately together, especially for the riches of the galaxy. Elmyra has always taken a little bit of interest in it, but despite her family previous riches, all she wanted to see is the ridiculous personalities of the rich. She is self-aware and knew that her backgrounds often slip out when she is not careful, and she doesn't want her background to define her.
Especially when she is with the boy in front of her. Being the two rookies in the group, Zel and Elmyra has hung out quite a bit over the past two months, but they never got to know each other that deeply. She was glad that Zel would accompany her to go where she wanted to, but also she is scared that Zel might judge her for how she is. She knew that Zel is from a drastically different background compared to her, and she is afraid that their differences will...
Elmyra looked at the boy next to her, who doses off while leaning away from her and rest his hand on the window of the shuttle. She lets out a light sigh and forces herself to focus on the good things, that she and Zel can finally hang out for a little while with just the two of them, and she could finally get to know him a little bit.
'It's okay, Elmie.' Zel said as he held her face with his prosthetic hand before leaning in towards her, 'no matter where you are from and who you were, it is the you now that I care about.'
The shuttle rocked upon descent into the district and woke up Elmyra. She sat up straight and realized that it was just a quick dream that she fell into. Now that she is thinking about it, the Space of Uncertainty that she enters into when she activated her artifacts actually do have a dream like quality to it.
'You are awake, Elmyra.' Zel said, looking out the windows towards the buildings that are now on the same level as the shuttles, 'we are almost here.'
'Yeah.' Elmyra said, looking in the same direction but focuses her gaze on Zel. Out of everyone at the base, she is most attracted to Zel for some reason. She couldn't quite tell what it was, but despite the obvious difference in their origins, there is something similar about them that brings them a lot closer than their backgrounds can push them apart.
'So, where do you want to go?' Zel said, pulling up an itinerary of the exhibition schedules in district 222 on his personal interface.
Elmyra leaned in close towards Zel, resting her arm on his prosthetic arm and pointed towards the first event that they could make at this rate and the biggest event of the day: the technology and fashion show.
'Should we go to that one?' Elmyra asked as she looked up, and Zel nodded as he blushes.
The exhibition center building looked like a floating bowl from a distance, but as the two got ever closer towards the building, they then realized that it was actually an entire stadium that was floating in the sky. The anti-gravity technology used in such a large structure will consume an incredible amount of energy, so this kinds of structure is rarely seen outside of the capital systems of the galaxy. It is the first time Zel has seen anything like this, and Elmyra only heard about these sort of wasteful constructs in her readings.
The queue that lined up out on the ground waiting to get into the cable car which travels up the cables that are tied to the base of the floating stadium has already begun forming. Elmyra stood on her tip toes and tried to see how far the queue goes, but Zel's prosthetic eye already gave him a quick estimation. It is a long queue.
The shutter of quadcopter blades came form above, as the ancient and more showboating style of aircraft carried VIP guests straight into the stadium while the rest of the normal people have to purchase the ticket online before lining up to get in.
'What do you think?' Zel said, looking up towards the cable right in front of them, 'wanna take a short cut?'
'Huh?' Elmyra didn't realize what he meant, but saw him reaching out with a hand. She took it, and an instant later she found herself standing on the ground, but everything around them became opaque and semi-transparent. Also, the sounds from the outside is completely cut off.
'Is this...?' Elmyra looked around and jumped up and down. She is certainly on solid ground, and yet it felt like she could see what lies beneath.
'Yes, welcome to my pocket....domain.' Zel said, letting go of her hand slowly, 'it's nothing spectacular or flashing, but...'
'No, I think this is cool.' Elmyra said, as Zel started walking ahead, the warmth of Zel's human hand still lingering within her palm, 'at least we can skip the queue, right?'
'We can do more than that.' Zel said, looking back at her before raising his hands to the side as they lifted off the ground.
As the ground beneath retracted away from their feets, Elmyra almost felt a sense of dizziness.
'I wouldn't look down either,' Zel said, as he looked up at the stadium, 'it still freaks me out.'
'You don't say...'
Are they flying? Elmyra wondered, as she tried to look away from the ground and instead focuses her eyes on Zel, whose complete focus is in controlling their movements. From the sensations in her body, she knew that they are not accelerating, and yet the pocket dimension is moving faster and faster upwards towards the stadium until five minutes later when they passed through the outer layer of materials, through the engine hall and layers upon layers of ultralight carbon support structures before finally reaching the minus second floor. They floated through the storage areas, a pair of toilets and finally emerged onto the ground level of the stadium's inside. Then, Zel backpadelled and took them back down into the toilet.
'What is going on?' Elmyra asked, as Zel looked visibly more tired as he finally releases his tight control on the artifact as the bottom of the bubble they are on coincides with the solid ground underneath their feet in the toilet.
'It.....it was too busy up there.' Zel crunched down and supported his body with hands on his knees as he panted due to the fatigue, 'that was tiring, but it was a new trick for me.'
'I have always had a sense of syncing my pocket domain with the real world, that's how I was able to travel in ships moving at high speeds while remaining hidden within the ship, or not fall through the floor when I am on a planet's surface.' Zel explained, reaching a hand out towards Elmyra again.
She was a little late to react to it, but then rushed to grab his hand and holding on tight. In another instant, they are back in the real world as the sounds of toilet's fans returned to their ears.
The door was pushed open and another guest who's looking down onto her personal interface walked in. She looked up, jumped and screamed as she saw Elmyra and Zel holding hands in the center of the bathroom, with Zel looking visibly tired.
'I'm sorry!' She yelled and back out of the toilet.
'Over the past two months, I have been thinking more and more about how my artifact works, and I realized that I can actually move the bubble individually relative to the real world, but the control of it is incredibly hard. The universe is constantly in motion, and everything is just...'
'A mess of vectors?' Elmyra asked, 'like everything is all tangled together, and there are simply too many things going on at the same time for you to track?'
'Yeah...a mess of vectors.' Zel said, shaking his head, 'if I lose focus, then we might get flung off the planet. But if I do it right, then we can do this.'
'Our artifacts are always capable of more than what we once thought. All the time.'
'It's okay, I trust you.' Elmyra said knowing how hard both of them trained over the past two months in order to control the artifacts the way they can now. She looked across at Zel who returned a smile. Then, both of them realized that they are still holding onto each other's hands.
'I.....I am sorry!' Zel apologized quickly and lets it go, 'I can warp people and things near instantly in or out of the pocket domain if I am establishing physical contacts with them!'
'No need to.....' Elmyra was about to speak before the toilet door opened again, and this time it was a grumpy middle-aged man who's big round belly is propping the door open.
'Oh for fuck sake, use toilets to pee or shit, PLEASE!' He yelled angrily as the two ran out of the toilet.
They kept going until they have reached the main level of the exhibition. Then, both of them finally realized why this exhibition is the biggest of the day. The exhibitions are divided into two levels with vertical spiraling escalator that bring people up or down levels without taking up much space, there are countless holograms on stalls with both AI and human, Aquarian and even Rockie designers, engineers and models around. The map of the entire exhibition is automatically loaded to Zel and Elmyra's personal interfaces, and the two are actually too overwhelmed to actually decide to go anywhere.
Following Elmyra's instincts, Zel decided to let she take over, as they approached the closest stall to them as an holographic AI approached them before it starts to explain the particular design at this stall. It is merely a dress tailor with its selling point being dress done in 1 minute. It costs about one hundred standard units per dress, and as the AI changes in and out of various outfits and designed templates, a real-time fitting of how Elmyra will look in that dress is also shown in a screen a meter away.
The first design that she 'tries' on is a snow-themed white ball dress with tiny speckles and scaly patterns all through the body, with openings along the side of her body. Very much like a fish now that Zel is thinking about it.
Elmyra looked at the 3D model of herself with intrigue as she turns to the left and the right before spinning around. The real-time modelling and rendering of the fabric spinning is flawless, and Elmyra looked towards Zel who's looking at her. Their gaze met for a short while before he tried to look away as to not seem weird.
'How...do I look?' Elmyra asked.
'I don't know...fashion...' Zel said with an unusually low voice as he swallowed hard and almost choked on his saliva, 'you look...'
'Oh Z.' Elmyra took a step towards him, the 3D model of her dissipating as she stepped out of the camera's view, 'I have seen you arms. They are fashionable. Tell me what you think, I won't be mad.'
'Okay.' Realizing that Elmyra at least acknowledged his design and coloring choices, Zel know that he can't piss her off so much. As someone who had spent hours wondering the best color scheme for his prosthetic arm for general purposes before settling in the bright red design, he does have some thoughts, 'in that case, I am going to be honest here.'
Elmyra stood back into the camera's view and posed with her hips to one side and her arm resting on it. The 3D model returned and did the same.
'So?'
'You look great.' Zel said and he continued before Elmyra could roll her eyes, 'but I am not sure white suits you. You are more of a...unorthodox, free and complex...do you have any designs that are black? We can then try another color after that.'
The 3D model now wears a black dress that are a little shorter, only covering to the shins but with a black spade symbol as a theme and back drop. There are tiny packets of black spades sewed one after another and forming a web that goes all around Elmyra's waist. Her shoulders are also covered with slim fit and much thinner material as her natural white skin contrasts nicely and shines through the tiny gaps.
'Oooooh~' Elmyra seemed happy with this choice, 'okay, Z! I see you!'
The next design then showed up on Elmyra, and it was a bright red color with a clear oriental inspiration decorated with flying dragons, balls and flames all around the body. Zel immediately had his mind return to Lady Lily, and to be honest, she is the last person in the galaxy that he wants to think about right now.
'Ah...'
'Yeah...probably the black one again.'
'Yeah...'
'Much better.'
'Now you look.....stunning...' Zel stared at Elmyra as she turns around happily, 'not that you don't before, but...'
'Okay, I will take one of these!' Elmyra said, and the AI happily took the order and began the printing process in the back chamber right away. Elmyra skipped towards Zel with a big smile on her face like a happy kid, and she got in close and bopped him in the nose, 'thanks for that! Now you have to get one as well.'
'Me? Why?' Zel was about to protest, but she puts a finger up and cut in.
'We are going to the fashion show tonight, and we need more than what we are wearing now.' Elmyra said as she wags her finger in her face, 'there is a dress code!'
'If I may interrupt,' The AI's voice came from behind them, but we have a sister tailor shop not too far from here. If you go there, then you can have a discount for the gentlemen too.'
Then, a bell rings, and the black dress is printed and ready to go in a small packet. Zel's the one carrying a small back pack, so it went right into it.
'Alright, let's go!'
Whether Zel likes it or not, he is now on a shopping spree with Elmyra, and though she may be the one taking advantage of the situation now, the table will soon turn on her...
'And what would your advice to be to modulize each of the desired functions into a much smaller arm?' Zel asked his tenth question to the stall owner of the 'Not Bored of Borg' stand, which is a cybernetic and augmentation and fashion themed stand with the owner also being a full on cyborg himiself too. Cyborgs take care of each other, and that's particularly the case here. Ever since they spotted each other in the stands, Zel and the stall owner has been talking to each other for twenty minutes straight going from unit design, to functional fitting and even touching a little bit of fashions for the arms.
'Usually, cyborgs or the enhanced tend to think about fitting more funcitonality into less space, hence making the entire unit bigger and more clunky, as you might have experienced.' The owner said, both of his arms and legs are augmented, and yet it is no bigger than any muscular human. He casually switches his hand from tools, grappling hook, a tiny pistol, a laser cutter and a shield generator in quick succession before returning it a hand. Zel's jaws almost dropped after he saw the intricate engineering going on in his hands.
Most cyborgs take care of their own enhancements, but there are certain businesses that help design and install such technologies. So far, Zel's main issue and limit is that he has to literally pack his arms in the luggage and switch it in and out based on the desired functions.
'So...how do I say this...' Zel said, 'We have some enemies that might be onto us, so do you have any units that may be enable more defensive and mobility based purposes?'
'I thought you were about to ask for firepower ha!' The owner laughed at the notion, 'those were not allowed, but super mobility and shields? For sure!'
He spun around and pointed towards a completely white arm with an outer coating that looked like ceramic type material in the stalls, 'if you would want to install it right away, my friend, I can offer you a big discount if you want to recycle in your old parts.'
And just like that, Zel has got a new arm.
After he is finally done, the cyborgs shared a hug, and Elmyra finally realized that he is not here to shop with her, she is here to shop with him.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone