Stanley: "Wait, where did Magnus go?" He interjected.
People immediately responded.
"Over there."
"He just left, stupid."
They pointed across the check-in zone for "Zetbya Airlines". Magnus had his hand on his chest and was dragging his suitcase behind three other people.
Stanley felt disappointed. Why wasn't he gone already? It should've been a clean disappearance, but it didn't happen.
Tallurre: "Now. Get out of here." Instantly, people started walking off. Most headed for the exits. Tallurre and Tono waited for everyone to go before they started chatting again in the same spots.
{Oh, shit. Right. I gotta be with those two. They better slow down; for some reason, this is crazy fast-paced. Is there like a rental car waiting? Do I get such benefits? Or just a taxi using their money? Fuck being broke, man.}
Stanley followed behind Oswald's fast, no-nonsense pace while walking near Sheng-Ri, who seemed to be walking casually, yet faster than Stanley.
He decided to speed up when they reached the entrance carpet to wipe your feet on it and basically be side by side with them when he reached the auto doors.
What a busy sight to see next.
Taxis, everywhere. From the left to the right of the concrete path, it was all taxis parked, leaving and moving. Behind those that were properly parked, others were hunting for empty parking spaces that they could squeeze into or parallel park into the tightest spots imaginable.
Upside down, high in the sky was the city of people in floating skyscrapers, with lights that seemed to be moving from buildings brightly and vibrantly. A lot crazier than what was down here, at the airport. It's overwhelming, at first glance, to see something like that hang from the sky, sitting on clouds.
The noise and heat were more of a surprise for Stanley.
"Oi", he heard. someone?
A slap in the face of heat radiated into him. At night. Of all times.
It most likely came from the buildings. Concrete. Technology. All that energy that powers the bright everything that was this city got converted into thermal energy.
The noises?
It was chatter, cars beeping endlessly and distant bass-heavy music.
A faint ticking noise was heard by Stanley inside the main buildings. What is it?
Oswald: "OI."
He called out to Stanley again, who was still stuck looking up in awe at the sky.
Sheng-Ri was already walking close to Oswald when Stanley was called out before, and followed him while mindlessly walking. Sleepily.
Oswald was carrying his own travel backpack and was dashing at a fast walking speed to a car.
He turned and waved to Stanley as he got into the passenger seat.
{O-o oh. My bad, man, I'm coming, coming.}
He speed-walked over to the taxi on his far left, twenty meters away.
As he got over, Sheng-Ri reached the car and opened the side door on the pavement, then walked over to the other side and entered through the other door.
{Uh? For me? She didn't even turn around to know I was there?}
As he got to the car, he saw Sheng-Ri sitting with her legs slightly spread casually while she held onto her bag, and Oswald was chatting to the human driver about a specific location.
Stanley: "So, we're going exactly where?" He casually asked while looking at Sheng-Ri.
Oswald: "Jeat Hotel. They allow PFH groups into the building as long as we don't do shit. As I was saying-"
He continued feeding the directions to the driver while learning about things and the situation of the group.
Sheng-Ri: "Yeah, that." She smiled faintly while looking tired once again.
Stanley: "Bit unprofessional, that a guy who's new is leading you and me right now, you know." He said cheekily.
Sheng-Ri: "Geez. I agree. It's kinda weird how he just took the role from me, and I slipped back into being a follower, like, how did that happen?"
She said back cheekily.
Stanley: "Must've been magic. Duh." He tilted his head away and looked straight at Oswald's headrest.
Sheng-Ri: "Fairs." She commented before turning to the window after glancing again at Stanley.
Thirty seconds after Oswald finished blabbering, the driver backed out into heavy traffic.
Plenty of horn beeping when exiting the airport.
Flashing indicators on all sides when they hit the main highway into the city.
And plenty more stopping, as all roads would be backed up with cars.
This at least gives Stanley time to look at the tall skyscrapers that have adverts upon adverts on them, blasting their sound out loud, and being annoying to hear while sleeping on the streets.
He also got to see thousands of people on the streets shouting something.
One did manage to catch his eye minutes after the whole group went silent and was either lying with their arms crossed or doomscrolling.
A timer.
[12:35 left until Ms Ciel Aurentine's broadcast]
His face contorted upon realising.
The people who ran through the airport came through to see this message with a watch party.
All these people were here for another broadcast by Ciel, Andromeda's representative in the election.
She normally drops Andromedan broadcasts once a month to let people know what she and her team were up to.
What was special here?
Is it because her name went public to the other seven galaxies?
Or something disastrous?
Or maybe she was quitting the election?
On some billboards, a circular timer ticks down fashionably with her, Ciel Aurentine posing cinematically while looking up in grayscale colour.
The timer now was showing 11:04 and ticking. People were walking in ginormous groups that took up crossings. Now, everywhere Stanley could look was just people on whatever they could walk on.
The clock ticks down.
Stanley didn't expect she would be the first one to address the whole entirety of everything living.
It's strategic, doing this now while you're last.
She will have to make this speech count to set a bar.
Stanley: "…"
Oswald: "…"
Sheng-Ri: "…"
In the background, a radio was playing a music station of old rap hits from around two hundred years ago.
NOSTALGIA-FM.
The song that played quietly while the driver got more ticked off by the number of cars and people running across the road was TEEN X by Playboi Carti, from his 2020 album, Whole Lotta Red.
Oswald kept turning his body back to see the other two's reactions to the billboards the moment they became visible.
Sheng-Ri was glancing at the two other boys while focusing on the wild chaos that was Fierfam-D's announcement night.
Stanley kept making this whole situation about himself.
{I could've prepped for this if I had a goddamn phone. A PHONE. MONEY. MONEY. MONEY. I really should've never smashed my phone when I walked out the fucking hospital. I get it, death makes me mad, but I could've prepped for this. Maybe I should've asked someone about this beforehand? no. This is a ME problem. I can't burden these randoms with my shit. Also, the fuck is this song? It's very old and basic. Simple repeating melody and chorus with use of Auto-Tune.}
Oswald: "Hey, Sheng-Ri?"
He called out.
Sheng-Ri: "mm."
"Mind if I hop out here? I'll meet you two at Jeat; I wanna watch this with people, sorry, not you lot."
Oswald asked with a bit of awkwardness, but he felt passionate about what he wanted to do.
A few seconds passed awkwardly.
Sheng-Ri: "Why can't you watch it with us? It'll be a lot safer in the building, so-"
Oswald: "Aw. tsk. I was hoping you'd allow me."
"I do; it's your safety I'm concerned-"
"Ay, Mr Pravenat, get my group to Jeat. Forget about me."
He politely made a comment to the driver before opening the car door carefully, trying not to hit the door into the car close to him while there was a pause in traffic.
Stanley: "Hey, Os?"
Oswald popped his head back in when he heard Stanley faintly call him out while he was putting on his backpack.
Oswald: "Yeah?"
"H-have a good o-one."
He said while trying to keep his stale, blank voice.
Oswald looked at him, uncomfortable that Stanley was being nice to him. Boys normally aren't nice; why be this friendly now?
"Cheers."
Then he jogged around cars, trying to rush to the nearest footpath.
After the slam of the door, it was silent in the car, as the song shuffled to "Mr Rager" By Kid Cudi.
Sheng-Ri and Stanley sit on opposite sides of the car, leaning towards the window.
One with sleepiness.
One with thoughts.
Both sit comfortably in warm clothes, with the AC blowing into their chests to take away the heat.
—————————————————————————————————————————
[00:31]
[00:21]
[00:09]
[00:07]
[00:05]
[00:01]
Silence.
All the chatter completely calmed down, and the sea of people looked up at the billboards.
The screen flashed.
It changed to a pure white room with a wooden chair and a small table with a glass of water on it.
On the left side, Ciel Aurentine began walking onto the screen.
She was a young Prismori woman with very bright skin and hair because of her genetics.
She walked into frame wearing her formal government SOLARR gowns, which had Silver, fuchsia, and Indigo as highlight line colours that contribute to the HI-Vis clothes that tradesmen and tradeswomen wear daily. Her own unique spin on the SOLARR colours with her speciality.
Steel caps, boots, and black cargo pants with highlighter green as the main colours.
Her hair was coloured faint lemon in a messy ponytail bun, like cute blonde that seemed dyed because her eyebrows were black and thick.
As the leader sat down, she adjusted herself carefully and seamlessly, as if it were preparation.
The crowd erupted again: murmurs, shouts, her name chanted among the rowdy haters.
Then she spoke.