Swipe glanced around the uncomfortably plain hall, as if seeking answers. "A personal story, let's see... I suppose I could tell you how I got my name."
"Yes!" Elmadillo clapped his hands together sharply, startling me. "Stories of names are very welcome. Please, tell this tale."
"You've probably heard that batches of mage children are temporarily assigned numbers as identifiers," Swipe began. "I was number twelve. There was no significance to that; it simply was. We tend to go through multiple casual names until one sticks. It's similar to our roles: we aren't assigned a particular role in the hive society, instead we naturally gravitate to whatever suits us as an individual person. Some mages later change names or roles as they find a different one is a better fit, or that they've been changed by experience or circumstances. A few fall between multiple roles and aren't comfortable with just one, though many mages look down on that as unusual."
I found it odd that mages, who my people decried as strange and unnatural, and who had thall's own negative opinions of the Pure and Titans, did not accept all of thall's own. I kept that thought to myself, not wanting to interrupt the story. The sooner it was told the sooner I'd get to put on a set of Titan glasses and would be able to see the hidden world around me. I was excited about that. Looking at the empty displays and undecorated walls while I waited was almost unbearable.
"Sorry, I'm getting off the point of the story," Swipe said, looking at Elmadillo apologetically.
"No matter, each story is told at its own pace. If you feel something is worth mentioning, it is part of your story."
A calm smile washed over Swipe's face. "Thanks. So, my name. There were thirty-six of us being raised by a set of six carers, as is a common arrangement. Many carers work all ra's lives in child-raising, while those who don't tend to do some while receiving medical or other training. Carers also tend to go longer than other roles before joining the Think Tank. So there's enough to go around all the young, usually. If not, one or two other mages may help four or five carers in raising a batch. Anyhow... Three of the carers who raised me were studying advanced medical subjects and were often lax or unavailable. That left the other three stretched thin between the thirty-six of us, and allowed some members of the batch opportunities to act out. There was a lot of unofficial 'borrowing' of items that hadn't been made available for general use, and misallocation of items which were supposed to be evenly distributed amongst us. Minor thefts, to put it simply. And somehow the evidence usually pointed my way."
"Ah, what a situation," Elmadillo said joyously, rubbing his hands together with increased enthusiasm as Swipe paused for a brief break. "Do go on."
It didn't seem right to be so pleased at this injustice and bullying of a child, but I continued to hold my tongue.
"So because the other kids thought I was swiping thall's stuff, thall started calling me Swipe, and it caught on."
"Wait, your name is based on something you didn't actually do?" I protested.
"The story isn't over," Swipe said, looking down to Elmadillo for approval. He nodded and grinned, so Swipe continued. "I wanted a way to get back at thall. To let thall know that I wouldn't let thall keep getting away with it. You see, when that particular tight group started calling me Swipe and being especially obnoxious about it, I suspected thall must be the true culprits. So I started spying on thall to try to get proof. I did hear enough to know thall were the true culprits, but thall were smart about avoiding leaving any evidence, so that didn't actually help me prove anything. But instead I learned some information I could use to achieve the perfect revenge. Leggy, one of our carers had a graduation coming up, and the group of thieving bullies planned to curry favour with a cake. Not just any cake, but ra's favourite cake from a nearby specialty cake shop. Only a few of that variety were made per week and they were not easy to obtain. Leggy couldn't justify the expense very often. And while the bullies had built up enough favours through the 'recovery' of stolen goods to be able to acquire a cake, publicly buying an expensive gift was too blatant, not thall's style, and didn't achieve any secondary goals."
"This is remarkably convoluted," Elmadillo remarked. "It's definitely exceeded my hopes, and I suspect I may award you some bonus credits, Swipe She. Just don't disappoint me."
"I'll try not to," Swipe said, visibly torn between pleasure at the compliment and worry over the potential of failure. "Now an important detail is that I often helped out at the cake shop doing errands, and there was no chance I could afford such a cake. So the thieves' plan was to purchase the cake when I wasn't at the shop, plant it in my room the next day, and contrive rumours to result in my room being searched by Leggy and the obviously stolen cake being confiscated. And consumed, because such a cake does not keep for very long. Returning it to the shop would be pointless, as it couldn't be sold after being 'stolen'. After that, the thieves could quietly inform Leggy that the cake was actually thall's, a fact which could be confirmed by the shop staff. If thall timed it right, thall might even get to eat a portion of it, and would 'generously' not begrudge what Leggy had already eaten, thus giving a gift without really giving it. And just as importantly, I would be in deep trouble."
"Intriguing! I wonder, what did you do with this information?" Elmadillo asked, inviting the conclusion of the story.
"I stole the one thing I couldn't get in trouble for: the idea! I told Niter, the head conjurer at the cake shop, that Leggy especially liked that cake and would be graduating, and arranged for a cake to be gifted to Leggy as a sort of publicity stunt. I made sure it happened the same day that I'd heard the bullies would buy thall's cake. That left thall stuck with a cake that thall could neither gift to Leggy nor plant on me, because what would be the point? Everyone knew I'd been involved in organising the cake, so it made no sense for me to also steal one, while gifting a second cake would seem strange and derivative. Thall were stuck eating an expensive cake thall had traded a lot of hard-won favours for, without any side benefits, while I got the glory of making Leggy's graduation even better without actually doing anything personally extravagant or trading in any favours myself. And the best part is, thall had to suspect that I'd actually swiped thall's plan, but thall couldn't do anything about it! What could thall say? No one would actually believe thall had bought the cake only to give away later, but were thwarted by Niter doing it first. After that I started gladly calling myself Swipe, and the bullies stopped plotting against me. As for how I made thall leave my friends alone, that's another story..."
"Bravo, very well done! An excellent conclusion, with a hint of a future tale. And a very clever solution to a problem of youth! I like you, Swipe. Here, hand these glasses around and you can all see the true magnitude and beauty of this room. And of course you must decide who tells the next story. Remember, I do expect one from each one renting glasses, so if you don't make good on that agreement there will be consequences." Elmadillo passed a fistfull of glasses to Swipe, who carefully distributed them. I noticed that the Titan's hands were actually a little larger than the seer's.
"So, before we put these on, what do they actually do? Punnt asked very skeptically.
"Nothing to worry about, the glasses don't affect your brain in any way," Elmadillo said in an attempt to comfort the drone. "They merely alter the light on its way to your eyes. And respond to some voice commands. Oh and to the direction you're looking and how you're focusing. But that's all."
"That sounds like a lot. Very invasive," Punnt said, having turned from skepticism to something closer to disgust.
I chose to ignore that developing storm and instead examined the glasses in my hand. They were quite plain, consisting of large circular lenses attached at the top to a straight black bar. The two arms were attached by hinges, and were also black and straight until they bent down at the ends to hook over the wearer's ears. A close examination showed me that the lenses were made of something other than glass. I slipped them on. The room looked fractionally dimmer, then corrected back to normal. After a moment, new splashes of colour began appearing.
It was a surreal experience to witness new objects appearing in my sight. They came so fast that I could not so much as acknowledge each new item before four more instantaneously emerged. Banners, strings of baubles, ropes of tiny magelights, so many layers of decorations fought for attention across the entire space. The floor too was enhanced by a sea of overlapping vibrant carpets. The people were not untouched by the changes. Many had flairs of additional colour added to their outfits. I spotted accoutrements such as pins, badges and assorted jewellery which I were certain hadn't been there moments ago. Others had alterations to hair styles, decorative face masks, and even ridiculously fancy hats which more than defied gravity.
I pulled the glasses down my nose to look over them. In reality, the room looked as dull as ever. Looking through the lens once again, the world was immediately vibrant and populated by so many new things. I could see that the display booths were not empty now, though I was not close enough to any to see details. I could however see some extra details of the people in my vicinity. Whenever I glanced at someone for more than a moment, letters in mage style writing appeared over their head, informing me of their name and some other pertinent facts. I looked at the other members of Cheesy Goodness, but only Swipe's name was visible. That made sense, since she was the only one to provide a name. I wondered whether that meant the Titans were uninvasive, or only wished to appear to be out of politeness.
Broth Jur's name appeared and I realised jur had started telling jur's story. I'd missed the introduction, and as the others started to follow our short host away from the entrance I realised I'd missed an instruction too. I hurried after thall, trying not to be distracted by my amazement at the way the visual illusion did not break as I moved.
"So there I was in the lower ninth borehole garden," Broth was saying. "It was a routine inspection and everything seemed in order, at first."
I knew this story well, so I didn't pay very close attention. There was so much to gawk at and wonder about. Why was that Titan's hat a birdnest with apparently real birds occasionally taking flight from it? How were so many Titans painfully pretty? How did that dress stay up and how could it be four different colours simultaneously? Did no one notice that some of the Winterfest banners intersected one another?
"The pressure seemed reasonably low so I opened the relief valve to test that it was operating correctly," Broth continued.
We were close enough to a technology display that I could see it, though I did not understand what exactly I was seeing. Two tall titans — most seemed either exceptionally tall or short — were holding similar handheld tools and were speaking while gesturing demonstratively to a small group of onlookers. Words and diagrams appeared over the presenters' heads, but I could not grasp the context.
Broth was finally getting to the good part of the story I'd heard several times before. "The blast hit the vent core directly causing major damage to the cooling foils."
On the other side of the meandering path around the atrium, I spotted a row of detached hands on a table. I waved to the Titan who appeared to be the proprietor. The hands waved back. I failed to suppress a shudder. I'd not been ready for that.
"Weird, isn't it?" Skids whispered from behind me. I almost yelped, not having realised sa was there.
"Very," I agreed. "But it doesn't scare me. Much."
Skids nodded. "Not much."
"...realised that what we were seeing wasn't water! No, it was frogs! Yes, somehow the holding tank was completely full of frogs. It took two days to figure out how they'd got in. There was a miniscule crack in the number four inflow..." As usual, Broth had reached the most exciting moment in the story, and passed directly into boring details without dwelling on it and letting listeners get proper enjoyment out of it. I glanced at Elmadillo and saw him frowning. Evidently my opinion was shared.
I tuned out the rest and focused solely on trying to understand what I was seeing. I could spend months in this place, and I knew I only had a week. I wouldn't let a moment go to waste.