SYOL (Take 2)

Orange was bouncing on his heels all the way up the escalator, barely able to contain his excitement. Not that he really needed to hold himself back: the station was entirely empty aside from himself, the friendly old elf who had insisted on helping him with his bags, and the excessive number of security guards. Well, Orange didn’t think the number was excessive.

“Thanks again for helping me, Mr. Yrej, sir!” Orange thanked as the two (and a man who seemed to be made of metal that had been trailing them the entire way) reached the top off the elevator and made their way to the bus. Or maybe it was a train? Public transportation vehicle to another dimension.

“It’s no problem, sonny. Anything to help out a new recruit, especially one from Terre. Not many coming in.” the old man responded, shaking his head.

“Well, I really appreciate it!”

Orange’s smile faded a little. The fact that no one from his planet was signing up to serve the overlord wasn’t really news to him, but he still didn’t like hearing it. He had hoped that maybe opinions would have changed over the past two years since Hadris arrived, but that wasn’t really the case. From what he had heard, from what he had witnessed, most people from his planet who signed up for the introductory course either dropped out or were discovered to be traitors within the first few months. That he was the only one he knew who earnestly supported the overlord and his cause left him feeling very strange and very alone.

He inhaled deeply and exhaled the negative thoughts away. None of that really mattered anymore, right? Today was the beginning of a new day, a new life! Everything else was behind him now, and if any of it resurfaced… well, he’d deal with it then. Right now, Orange was in his happy place.

“Looks like this is where we part, my friend. Make us proud!” Yrej humbly requested as he handed Orange the rest of his bags, the doors of the bus/train/public transportation vehicle to another dimension opening before them like the gates of Heaven.

“I will, sir!” Orange said as he stepped aboard. The armored man – or maybe just the armor man – continued to follow him, the doors closing as he stepped inside. There was another set of doors separating the seating area from the driver, which was odd but not as odd as the driver himself. The driver was a man (well, Orange assumed it was a man) made almost entirely out of eyeballs, each of which stared silently and expectantly at him.

“Good afternoon!” Orange greeted as he produced the new ID FLO gave him after Hadris had departed earlier. The driver responded with a number of blinks and pressed a button, opening the doors and allowing Orange and his hulking tagalong inside. Orange didn’t really think much of the process, having already gone through it a couple of times before. He wondered if he’d get used to everything around here this quickly.

The first thing he noticed upon entering is that the bus/train/public transportation vehicle to another dimension wasn’t completely empty. There was a girl about his age asleep in one of the seats, dressed in a uniform not unlike the one Orange was wearing. There was something familiar about her, but Orange couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Not wanting to bother her, he shrugged off the feeling and seated himself, deciding there was no harm in letting his bags occupy the seats around him. The armored guard sat directly across from him, right next to the sleeping girl, resulting in a loud thunk that woke the girl up.

“Aggh, don’t kill me! I’m awake, I’m awake!” she shouted upon awakening, causing Orange to jump. Upon realizing she wasn’t surrounded by demonic entities that preyed upon the sleeping (as far as Orange was aware), the girl settled down and looked at the two new arrivals as the bus/train/public transportation vehicle to another dimension began to move.

“Oh! There you are! I’ve been waiting for you, you know!” she said, allowing a little of her impatience to show through. Orange hadn’t been aware someone was going to be waiting for him, and if he had been he probably would have packed faster.

“You… have been?” he asked, not sure why anyone would be waiting for him. Hadris hadn’t told him to look out for anyone, nor had FLO. He wouldn’t be surprised if they had simply neglected to or if they assumed he already knew, but that didn’t seem entirely likely.

“Of course! Err… wait, your name is Orange, right? I’ve got the right guy, right?”

“Looks like it.”

“Okay, good! Then let me explain!” she cleared her throat, “My name is Aedi Levon, and I’m the ambassador to Terre!”

Orange raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t have been much older than he was, if she even was older. How could she possibly be an ambassador to anything?

“Aren’t you a little… young to be an ambassador…?” Orange asked cautiously, hoping he didn’t offend her. Maybe she was actually thousands of years old and just looked really young, or maybe she was a child prodigy. Or maybe she was lying. Or crazy.

“Well… yeah, probably.” She admitted with a shrug. “But I’m the only person from Terre who’s been around long enough! Not that I really get to do anything, but that changes today! I’m gonna take you under my wing and raise you to be the best intern ever!”

The latter half of her answer mostly flew over Orange’s head. This girl was really the only person qualified for the job? Evidently, Terre’s representation in the overlord’s empire was even worse off than he had assumed.

“Um, I don’t mean to pick at things, but how long have you been working for the overlord?”

Aedi tilted her head, both curious at Orange’s train of thought and in the midst of thinking.

“Well, I joined up pretty much the second Drew took over, sooo… it’s been two years, I think? Yeah, two years! So, since you’re here, that means I’m only a year ahead!”

The way she answered was lighthearted, like she thought their pitifully thin difference in experience was hilarious. She didn’t seem to take her position very seriously, but it dawned upon Orange that it was highly likely that her position in itself wasn’t very serious. Her being an ambassador was probably more along the lines of a vaguely official title, maybe some sort of a reward for being the only person from Terre who hung in there and wasn’t interested in turning on the overlord. She even said it herself that she didn’t get to do much – as carefree and irreverent as the overlord seemed to be, Orange didn’t believe Hadris would really let some teenaged girl with only two years of experience working for him handle diplomatic relationships with a planet he already had a tenuous relationship with.

But he could’ve been wrong.

Regardless, Orange decided it wasn’t something he should worry himself about. After all, she was his superior, and it would be entirely inappropriate to disrespect his superior, especially on the first day.

“Oh, I see. Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Levon, and I look forward to working with you!” he smiled.

Her face turned red as she tried to wave his words away. “Aww, jeez, don’t be so formal! Just call me Aedi! Or A-Money! Or whatever, really!”

“Can do, Miss A-Money!”

“Ehh… let’s stick with Aedi.”

“Probably for the best.”

The bus/train/public transportation vehicle to another dimension came to a smooth stop, so smooth that Orange hadn’t realized they had reached their destination until the doors opened.

“Oh no! I didn’t even get anything wise and educational in!” Aedi gasped. “Man, I gotta learn how to manage my time better…”

“Well, I thought it was educational.” Orange assured her, even if what he learned from her didn’t seem to be what she desired to teach.

“Really? Oh, well, um… thanks! But we’re not done here!” she announced, picking up some of his bags. “It’s my duty as the ambassador of Terre to help you bring these to your room!”

Orange was about to inform her that that was far from an ambassador’s duty, but he took one look at her pitifully determined face and decided against it. He thanked her and grabbed the rest of his luggage, noting that the guard was no longer following him. Not thinking much of it, he thanked the driver on the way out, who responded by tipping his hat.

Upon stepping outside, Orange couldn’t help but stare at the world around him. The overlord’s personal dimension consisted of an absolutely massive building that blended magic and technology in a manner Orange couldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams. If he had to describe it to someone, he could only say it was like a fairytale castle fell through an abstract painting and into a high-budget science-fiction movie. To add to the strangeness, the building was floating in the middle of a white nothingness. There was some sort of floaty quality to the air, making it seem like everything was underwater.

“C’mon, Orange! I don’t have all day!” Aedi called out, already showing her ID to the guards at the entrance. Orange straightened himself and followed suit, radiating with excitement.

“All righty, let’s see here. Residency, residency…” Aedi mumbled as she pulled out what looked like a buzzer – maybe it was just a normal phone – and examined it closely. “Ah! Here we go! Follow me, kid, and we’ll be there in no time!”

Orange smiled and did as instructed, allowing Aedi to lead him along. He had already picked up a map before he left to pack, but she seemed so intent on fulfilling her “ambassadorial duties” that he couldn’t let her down, even as she proceeded to get the two lost a number of times. By the time the two finally arrived at Orange’s new apartment his arms felt like they were about to fall off.

“Here we are! Whoo…” Aedi cheered very halfheartedly.

“Thank you very much for the help, Aedi. I probably would’ve been walking around in circles for hours without yourself.” He lied, trying to sound as honest as possible. He really did appreciate her willingness to help, especially since she took half of the luggage off of his back. It was nice to start off his almost-first-day by meeting a friendly face.

“Aww, come on, you don’t have to lie to me.” She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. “I’ve always been pretty bad with directions, even with a map. I remember one time I spent an hour trying to find a place that was a block away once…”

Orange’s eyes widened. That was it! That’s why she was so familiar!

“That’s right! You were looking for the library! Because we were in a group project!”

Aedi gasped and covered her mouth. “About biomes! About tundras!”

“And when you finally got there you got yelled at for apologizing too loud!”

“And then we put a bunch of really cute animal pics on our posterboard thing!”

“And then we got a B on it because we didn’t rehearse at all but we still did pretty well aside from that one guy that wasn’t really paying attention at all throughout the whole project!”

“I can’t believe it! I didn’t even recognize you! Which is weird because you’ve got a pretty recognizable look to you! Almost like a protagonist kind of thing, really…” Aedi trailed off for a moment.

“Besides, isn’t your name something else…? It was like… Norman or something. Norman, Orange, guess they’re pretty close…”

Orange cleared his throat. He wasn’t particularly fond of his real name, especially now that he had a new one. It was a nickname the overlord had given to him the very first time they met, and given that the majority of his interactions over the past two years had been with the overlord and his employees, it stuck. It was kind of a silly thing to ask people to call him, but he thought it was a happier name. The kind of name he wanted to have from now on.

“Well, Orange is more of a nickname, I guess…” he explained sheepishly.

“Hmm… then I’ll just keep calling you that! Way cuter. I mean catchier.” She coughed, “So, anyway, yeah! That’s really cool! I never thought I’d end up meeting anyone I knew here!”

“Same here! Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be meeting anyone from back home at all. I’ve heard that people are still pretty fiercely against Hadris…” Orange frowned.

Aedi’s glow faded. “Yeah… I was pretty surprised when I was the only one qualified for the ambassador position. Like, you’d think that at least a couple other people would have stuck around, right? There’s a lot of people on the planet, and for us to really be the only ones around here is pretty weird…”

She stopped for a moment. Orange would have felt the need to start up a different conversation, but she seemed to be thinking about something.

“So you’re… you’re not planning anything, right?” she asked. “Like, you’re not just gonna be another one of those people who tries to plot against the overlord or something, right?”

“No, of course not!” Orange answered hastily, shocked by her question. He had been so determined to get this job, to get this life, that having someone suspect his loyalty was the last thing he had been expecting. “I’d never dream of it! That’s the last thing I’d ever want to do!”

He held his tongue. Aside from the fact that he was sounding just a little too quick to jump on the question, he was about to ramble on about his personal goals and motives to someone he barely knew. Despite his concern, Aedi seemed perfectly satisfied by his answer and her smile returned at full force.

“Good! If you were, I’d have to report you, y’know!” she grinned.

“Anyway, I guess I’ve probably used up enough of your time, huh? You should probably get unpacking and stuff. But I’ll definitely be seeing you again! After all, what kind of ambassador abandons her students before they’re ready to fly?”

Orange was beginning to think she had no idea what the word “ambassador” meant, but he decided not to kill her buzz. “Sounds good to me. Then I’ll see you… tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow! It’s a date!” Aedi agreed. “You know, like, a date on the calendar.”

“Yes.”

“Yep.”

The two of them stood there silently for a moment before Aedi shoved the rest of Orange’s luggage into his arms and ran off.

“Okay, bye!” she yelled as she left.

Deciding to get right to business, Orange pulled out his ID and ran it through the card reader next to the door. It took him a minute or two, but he managed to grab everything and bring it all inside in one go. Taking a deep breath, he closed the door behind him and looked around.

His apartment looked a lot like an expanded hotel room, and a fully furnished one at that. Living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom – every room came with everything you’d expect from it and then some. Every item of furniture seemed expensive and over-the-top, and there were accessories he hadn’t been expecting to find. There was a large flat-screen television, an unfamiliar video game system, a number of exotic-looking potted plants, toiletries, bookcases full of books, plenty of spare linens, cleaning products, and even a minifridge – not to mention the refrigerator and pantry were all full of food. Even more surprising, there was an entire second bedroom that he had no clue what to do with. Orange had been sure to research what residency was like, but he still couldn’t honestly say he had been expecting anything like this. He was beginning to feel like he had gotten in over his head. After all, he was living in another dimension now, working for a universe-conquering entity he wouldn’t have believe existed a few years ago.

As he began unpacking, Orange began to calm down again. By the time the sun had set – or rather, by the time the sun had set back at home according to his watch – he was relatively satisfied with everything.

“I can’t believe this is really happening…” he thought out loud, running a hand through his hair. He smiled lightly, feeling more at peace than he had in a long time.

Ready to reach tomorrow, Orange decided to retire early and headed to bed. Though it was a bed he had never slept in in an entirely alien place, sleep came easily.

Waking up? Not so much. Orange awoke to a very loud and repetitive beeping at six in the morning, originating from the buzzer on his nightstand. Eyes open immediately, Orange’s hand darted over to the buzzer and flipped it open. Before he could greet whoever was on the other end in a voice too perky to possibly exist at such a time, the stranger spoke up:

“What’s up, intern? Ready to raise some hell?”