Chương 7: Circo-Sensei

Heading to a sand color building, the children head to their designated classroom. Taking a lift, Little bee and Vail head to the second floor. Entering into the north end classroom of the four rooms on the floor, Little Bee and Vail step into an auditorium setting easily a hundred to two hundred people. The walls are one way see through, though not easily notable from the outside. At the podium is a very bright man who pops from the amount of clothes and accessories that seem to pop. Adding to his explosive appearance is his excitement as noted by his wiggling skin like antennae protruding from his forehead. His antennae's bulbous ends occasionally touch each other. Where his hair should be is small pebble-like protrusion covering his head and the back of his nape. The students gasp upon entering. He stands upright and smugly smiles which doesn't reach his eyes. Impatiently, he sarcastically greets the class, "morning morning class! I'm too happy to meet you" pointing at his non-existent smile. He dismissively continues "The great alliance decided to appoint someone with no credentials or remote experience in caring for children as your proctor all in the name of 'community service' for a minor misdemeanor in hacking into my boyfriend's trust. *mutters* The jerk can take off with the only know collection of Predator human-sized figurine, and I can't get a little of the interest he sold it for*muttering ends*. You can call me Circo. In a atom, don't count on me for anything, but lets get along". He finishes grinning. The students stare him. Shifting from foot to foot and his ears wiggling, Circo looks at them back. "What? Do I have something on my face? I'm sure I applied the new cream treatment unless they cheated me..", he says breaking the silence. Note expecting him to talk to them, the students rush questions at him:

"Circo-sensei! What are those bumps on your head?!"

Circo-sensei! What is the color?!"

"What color is that on your feet?!"

"What is mimosa-demeanh--re?"

"What is community service? Are you a regulator?! Do you work beyond the city?!"

As they bombard him with questions, he all of a sudden bursts out laughing and crying, "bwahahaha, y-you guys are sooo cute!". Taking a moment to calm down the bursts of laughter, he comments, "cute but so sad". Pointing to the first kid that asked the question, he compliments, "good eye you have kiddo! These bumps are the bop of the sky islands! And you other two [he points at other children], you have a great sense of aesthetics! These colors are highlighter! This one is lime-green with a silver border![points at shirt] and these pants are the latest hot bright pink! emphasis on bright with shifting flaming swirl designs! These slip ons are glitter pods which come in bubble pods and you just lather them on! Oh, and you there! Is a a regulator a hero? I am more of an avenger which is what misdemeanor is, but don't try it until you reach my level!"

The children circled him oohing and aweing. Enjoying the attention, his antenna stop wiggling, and he pauses the chatter of the children: "Since I gotta show I did something as your proctor, I'm gonna be displaying the material on the screen". Pressing the built-in screen on the podium, the windows darken further and monitors come on all around including the front. A hologram of a middle age man comes on introducing their city and pretty much a similar speal as the supervisor. Looking at the screens coming on, he remarks, "You guys are so lucky to watch videos for class!" but looking at the opening, he scoffs, "I take that back...What kinda dump track is this! Historical videos my A**! They are basically indoctrination propaganda!" Breathing deeply, he turns to the children, "K, I'm gonna just give you the gist and then you can ask me questions that I can answer". The. children look at him confusedly but nod their heads enthusiastically. Clicking a few more buttons on screen and then plugging in his nondescript wrist guard. "Let me Wooglr a map. Hmm? non-authorize use of content? Rac, what is that?...Ah. Here it is". The class screen change. A map covers the classroom. The students are mesmerized at the size. "Is this where we live?".

In response, Circo handles the hologram and rotates it: "Whoops. Let me zoom in. Technically, you live here at the coast of Niebla formally known as Nevada. The rest is the continent of America divided into North and South." Looking at their confused faces, he rephrases, "Let me restart. You live here in the coast of Niebla. Its name is Niebla because of the ever-present thick cloud the hangs over most of the state. The cloud is the leftover from a big explosion that occurred a thousand or so years ago. The explosion was nuclear weapons used on as video calls it 'warmongers that needed to be pressed down for peace' which was then know as Soviet Union of American States... The Alliance named this country Soviet to echo the threat of the countries in the Cold War, but they really weren't communist. The war happened because of zealot capitalists. If you don't know what it means, Wooglr it. Because they were waging war with the rest of the world, the Alliance decided to take matter into its own hands and use the same tactic as this country once used on Japan but not before consulting with the all the heads of each of the remanning countries or so they say. Something went wrong in miscommunication, so they ended it up firing in four more locations. One of those locations was Niebla. Because of this full frontal attack, yeah, the war stopped, but the country was decimated economically and socially. The leftover radiation stagnated population until it seemed that the SUSA would end but researchers in the neighboring country along with the leading company at that time saved them by altering the genetic code which had already long been in the works at that time. Now, we all look like aliens or predators, maybe not a lot like predators. Of course, the alteration didn't help much with the declining age till deceased for the people directly but it did help with the rest of the world who had to deal with the spreading residue especially since the SUSA manage to send three attacks back. So in a cell, the conditions of your city is what much of this country is like. Unlike what the supervisor of the hologram claim, its not so much your responsibiity as it is your descendants, but its what you have to live with."

Tentatively, a child stood up, "umm...what is war Circo-sensei?"

Stoping his rambling, he finally looked at the students, "..................Maybe I should have started simpler...the war is not the point or maybe it is. Anyways, as a resident of this annexed country and Niebla, you have to work hard at building parts for maintanence of the sky cities or roaming cities and monitor the fields of spice as a form of ..." Before saying the last word, he looked at their eyes, "ShizNits! I'm gonna sounds like the supervisor! .....Just work hard to build points. Your parents will be happy, and maybe you'll be happy. And, if anything this academy is good for, is to train your to survive in this forsaken casket. K! Thats all! Any questions?"

Tentatively, Vail stands up and mumbles, "What are the sky islands and why don't we live with the others?"

His antenna wiggling, Circo answers pointing to his antenna, "you should speak up even though I can hear you fine with these babies that pick up waves and...oh, I mean soft sounds. And to answer your question, you guys are annexed, so you this is your home place even though its controlled by someone else. Because of the thick clouds over the majority of your country, its very hard for anyone else to liven besides the residents here, so its unknown what effects living in the sky islands would have on the residents here and vice versa. Even I had to come herein a special craft, and my guard is always emitting a membrane of protection Other than that, I don't know why else...Its just what they decided, maybe?"

The children look depress. Vail asks in a louder voice, "What about the sky islands?"

"Oh, those, you can think of them as municipalities. Taking advantage of the concept of gravity and advances on moon colonies, people decided to build sky islands especially because of overpopulation and trying to clean up the earth or something like that. The cities basically float or practically everything does. Its basically a normal city in the sky. It has some protection from attacks of larger skyfish or whales but overall a normal city."

Another kid asks, "What is a moon colonies?" and another, "what is a fish and a whale?"

Feeling their excitement, he continues, "Well, let me show you." Pulling up two the images, he points to the left one, "as you can see, they don't look like fish [points to right image] but [he zooms in] they have gills. The fish have wings on their back while the whales fins are very large wings..."

Many children comment, "Ugh!"

Circo nods, "yep, they are not very aesthetic but they do have a certain charm...it just ends when they attacks the cities. They chew on the cities perimeters or bang onto the cities as they migrate. As for the moon colonies..." Pulling other images, the class goes haywire with chatter, "Wah!! What are those shiny things? is that other cities? so many? Where are the clouds?!"

Circo laughs observing, "you guys have never seen stars?" but then grows quite, "forget I said that!"

Little Bee stands up to which Circo remarks, "Oh? you've seen stars?"

Little Bee shakes his head and responds, "No, but I know wishing stars, and they are beyond the clouds of our city." Some children stare at Little Bee.

Chuckling, Circo points to the bright dots illuminating a skyless city on a sandy gray ground, "I don't know about wishing stars, but moon colonies are beyond our sky just like stars like you said. The moon colonies are in another sky surrounded by lights that signal another world like ours, maybe..."

The bell rings, but the students don't want to leave class yet, so Circo reassures that they can continue to talk about what they were discussing and they can even think of questions to ask him while on break