The busy sounds of distant metro trains approaching the station bring it to life in a way that none of the other environments I've seen so far have been. The sight of so many strangely dressed figures doesn't hurt either.
The instant I step off the escalator and onto a stone platform just past the technology that led me here I feel something strange occur within me. It is difficult for me to explain, but I feel noticeably stronger, and as milliseconds pass I detect my senses sharpening. I slowly become aware of whispered words and the subtle sounds of heartbeats of people walking past me. It is a strange sensation and it takes me a beat to adjust to. Thankfully one thing I'm quickly learning is how to adjust to my circumstances, so in moments I'm feeling ready to move.
Little Al guides me past the escalator and in seconds we find ourselves in front of several connected turnstiles that form a barrier impeding access to anyone who lacks a metro card. Al steps up to the terminal connected to one of the turnstiles and touches it lightly, causing the thing to activate for them. They step past the barrier before repeating the process on the other side of the device and urging me to follow in their footsteps. I don't question this and slip past the turnstile with ease.
"Welcome to Vaporwave City's central subway stop." The machine informs me as it gestures in a surprisingly human way to the vibrant and large metro station ahead of us. I smile at the machine and am surprised when the robot turns back to face me.
"From here, a clever and well-informed traveler can reach almost any destination in the region. Metro Conductors are, among other things, guides who are supposed to be able to help travelers figure out the basics about getting where they need to be. You are, in many ways, a first responder when it comes to helping both newcomers and tourists." Little Al states, speaking both confidently and admiringly.
"Someone signing up to be a 'Metro Conductor' is fairly rare. Many newcomers enjoy the idea of more exciting positions. When I saw that that was what you signed up for I thought it'd be good to go ahead and introduce you to both the metro system broadly and also introduce you to your supervisor." Little Al explains, and I smile at the machine.
They begin to move and I quickly dart behind the energetic-seeming machine. I'm not sure if this is accurate but the machine seems… excited.
We dart deeper into the station and after walking a short distance we find ourselves heading towards the edge of the walkway. Just beyond the walkway is a set of tracks for the trains placed several feet beneath the walkway I've been walking on, but no train at the moment, and I instinctively want to call out to the machine but I remember just how weird a situation I'm in and manage to hold myself back.
The machine doesn't stop darting forward and I am surprised when I watch a small walkway appear underneath its feet. The machine walks atop this strange, holographic walkway and proceeds over the path that should otherwise interrupt passage between the two neighboring platforms.
The machine's blase nature regarding the seemingly invisible pathway suggests this is not surprising, and so I embrace a "When in Rome" attitude and don't question it either. Still, it's hard to ignore my instincts and as I approach the edge of the platform a part of me tells me not to do what I'm about to do…
When I reach the edge of the platform the only thing that gives me the courage to proceed is the knowledge that I can fly. That allows me to suppress my instincts long enough to mimic the machine ahead of me, and I am relieved when I see the faintly glowing walkway materialize underneath me and catch me.
Curiously the very instant that I step onto the strange path I lose the strange boost to my senses I have previously been feeling. This doesn't weaken me in any say, but it is a strange sensation. The floor beneath me feels as solid as the more mundane ground behind me and so once I take my first step and find my footing it is almost effortless for me to proceed after the machine and reach the other side of the strangely digital path. When I step onto the next stone platform my senses are boosted again. I wonder if I'm somehow connected to the floor? I don't know how that'd work though… Well, it's not like I know how much here works.
Ahead of Little Al and I, in the middle of the platform we've just reached, sits a large station of some sort. It is a full, if small, one-room building or booth of its own, and a number of individuals are working inside of it. The robot guides me to this booth and begins to speak to the men and women, all of whom are at least superficially human.
"Hello, metro station employees. Is shift manager 'Mrs. Crane' here?" The robot asks, and I am caught off guard when its voice abruptly shifts when it says the name of the woman it is looking for. The voice goes from being the mostly monotonous and fairly gender-neutral voice of the machine to what sounds like a recording of someone saying their own name. The employees listen to the machine's question before glancing at each other in curiosity.
One of the employees eventually spots something in the distance and points outside of the booth he and his coworkers are in, pointing directly to our right. I turn to see what he is pointing at. I am surprised when I spot the solitary figure approaching us: a decently tall woman with silvery-white hair who is gazing at the robot and I curiously. She is dressed in a well-cared-for suit, and has a pretty smile on her face. When she reaches us and smiles at Little Al and appraises me curiously.
"Hello there Al. How are you doing?" She asks. The robot is quick to explain that it is doing well and that it wants to introduce me, the newest person to arrive in Vaporwave City, to her. The machine is also quick to add that I have amnesia. The woman smiles at me and extends a hand towards me warmly. I smile and shake her hand, before introducing myself.
"Hello! I'm Luke. I'm not sure if that's my actual name, it's just one I'm trying out." I remark, and this makes the woman laugh.
"I signed up to be a metro conductor, so I'm thinking we'll probably see a lot of each other." I add, which makes "Mrs. Crane" begin to smile dazzlingly at me.
"Oh, you're a new trainee! That explains why Al brought you to me." She remarks, a look of pleasant surprise on her face as she takes in the information I have just shared with her. And then I watch a wave of realization wash over her when she connects that I am a new trainee who has arrived on "Guide Day", and that I have amnesia together into one thought..
"Oh, you're new. Like… A new arrival, at least for all intents and purposes." She says, gently. I lightly laugh at her remarks and nod softly.
"Yep! I'm a new arrival all the way. Complete with amnesia." I say, trying to joke with her. She smiles at me but it's an awkward one and I can tell she's wondering what I'll be like to work with. I wonder if she believes I have amnesia, but even if she doesn't believe it she seems to be taking my actions in stride and does seem to believe the part that matters: that I am a true newcomer.
"In that case, you probably have no clue who I am. I'm Mother Crane, and I am a fairly young immortal who first arrived in Vaporwave City some thirty years ago. In terms of absolute time, I'm only eighty years old, as opposed to some of the other immortals in the city, but I've been working in public transit the entire time I've lived in the city." She explains brightly.
"I'm something of a… patron saint of public transit, but my true love is the metro station and subway system we have running through the city." She says, as she turns and gazes at some distant trains. After a long moment, she turns back to face me and smiles.
"I'm so excited that we have a new trainee!" She says, joyfully. I can hear her smile as much as I can see it, and it's hard not to share her enthusiasm. Little Al speaks up at this point, and what they say delights both "Mother" Crane and myself.
"Mrs. Crane, would you like to take Luke on a tour of a subway train? Let him see behind the wheel, as it were?" The machine asks, which causes Mrs. Crane to almost bounce with delight.
"Yes! My shift is almost over anyway, so I can definitely show our newest trainee the ropes." She exclaims and almost instinctively reaches out to me. I watch a wave of shock come over her and she almost immediately retracts her hand.
"Sorry! I just got so excited about giving someone a tour that I lost myself. Do you want a tour?" She asks, and I brightly nod at her. This genuinely delights her and she begins to walk off. Little Al says farewell to the two of us, and I thank the machine as I quickly move to follow Mrs. Crane.
"Where did you decide you were going to be staying?" Mrs. Crane asks when I reach her side.
"I decided I'd be staying at the Megablocks. I thought it'd be good for me to be as social as I can be." I explain. The Megablocks are a basic, cheap apartment complex located near one of the edges of the city. The gargantuan area is inhabited by tens of thousands of newcomers, many of whom only stay temporarily before moving to another neighborhood or city.
"The Megablocks are a good choice for an amnesiac. Not every person suffering from amnesia gets their memories back so finding a new place to live that promises a new life is not a bad choice." She remarks, nodding sagely as she considers my choice.
"In that case, I can commandeer a train heading over there. Mind showing me your cellphone and I.D.?" She asks, and I let out a soft laugh at the idea of charging onto a train and effectively taking it hostage. I reach into my wallet and pull out the object she's asked for. She nods as she studies my I.D., before handing it back to me and then quickly types something into my phone before handing it back to me.
"There you go. Now you have my contact information, and I know your address. The Megablocks are big so I wanted to see where your unit was located before attempting to figure out which train to take." She reveals, a small, mischievous grin on her face.
We wander for a few minutes before she guides me onto one of the trains. We enter near the front, and multiple people say hello to Crane, smiling at her and asking if they can take a picture with her. The instant that we step off of the platform and into the train I again feel the curious boost to my senses dissipate, even as people crowd around "Mother" Crane.
I wonder if it's tied to stone somehow? Or if it's connected to me being on the ground, or the ground floor at least? It seems highly conditional, but at least it doesn't hurt me whenever the strange conditions that dictate whether or not it is working change.
The train begins to move as Crane politely deals with the excited crowd. I can't believe we managed to find a train full of public transit enthusiasts. We spend several minutes dealing with fans and undoubtedly some clout-chasing influencers who want to schmooze with local figures of importance. Eventually, they are settled and satisfied and we quickly head past them and into the conductor's cabin. The cabin is an elegant, high-tech room where a number of seats are positioned behind a large console, and one of those seats is occupied.
A young man not much older than me, perhaps in his mid-twenties, sits behind an elegant-looking console as he stares at the tunnel the train is moving through. He stoically studies it, and judging from the look on his face I think someone might think he's responsible for everything that happens on the train. Crane looks at me and smiles as she approaches him and puts a hand on his shoulder. He turns and when he sees her he smiles at her.
"Hello Mother Crane. How are you doing?" He asks politely. She smiles back at him.
"Good afternoon Marcus. I'm doing well, I'm actually here on a tour!" She exclaims, and this causes the man to smile. Crane takes a step back and allows Marcus to see me. I smile at the man and step forward, offering him my hand. He takes it and I take the chance to introduce myself.
"Hey, I'm Luke. I'm a new arrival, sort of, and a new trainee." I remark, and the man's eyes widen in delight.
"Oh wow, other than Mother Crane I've never met a new arrival who wanted to work in the metro station." He tells me, with a look of curiosity. He is a white guy with blonde hair and a physique similar to that of a surfer. Heck, he might just be a surfer since this is a coastal city.
"Did you work in a metro before you got here?" He asks, curiously. I smile faintly and give him a confused look before I make my "Confession".
"I'm actually an amnesiac. My first memory is waking up on the boardwalk earlier today. I spoke to a lady working one of the rides on a pier and she was the one who got me in touch with security people who got me here." I tell him, causing him to chuckle awkwardly. He gives me a brief, but highly skeptical look, for the briefest of instants but not so quick that I miss it. He is the first person to hear this and fill with skepticism, but he doesn't seem to mind the lie. Curiously this does get a reaction from Mother Crane who glances at me as I explain, mixing truths and lies together into one seamless narrative, my chosen backstory.
"Shit man, that sucks. Why don't you sit next to me and I can show you this little beauty? Maybe it'll make you feel better?" He asks, and I let out a small laugh as I step forward and sit beside the man.
Marcus begins to explain the various functions of the buttons, knobs and switches on the machine while Mother Crane also steps forward and sits right behind me. She pulls out her phone and begins to play with it. Marcus is in the middle of explaining what one of the buttons on the console does when Mother Crane taps my shoulder and I turn to look at her. She hands me her phone and points at the screen. I glance at it and study a picture on the screen Crane intently wants me to see.
"Is that the person who helped you?" She asks. The picture is of the lady who pointed me toward the security people on the pier, hugging Crane with a bright smile on her face.
"Whoa, that's neat. That is her!" I exclaim, brightly. Crane smiles at me and lets out a soft laugh.
"That's my niece. Her name is Night Orchid." Crane tells me, and this makes Marcus smile at us.
"Whoa, new guy's first meeting was with one of your relatives? And it's Night Orchid working a regular person's job? Weird." He tells us before we all laugh. Crane beams at me and speaks some more after Marcus's remarks.
"You know, I bet she'd love to know you were okay. We have a family-wide group chat and she's actually texting us about you right now." Crane tells me, which makes me smile. She then considers Marcus's remarks, before realizing that they may not make much sense to me.
"Night Orchid was only at the pier volunteering. She's made a hobby of working different professions during 'Guide Day' to see if she can meet newcomers. That's how her dad met her mom; my sister, when the two of us arrived in Vaporwave City for the first time. Orchid is actually the CEO of a prominent company. All of my younger relatives tend to be pretty prominent in their fields." Crane tells Marcus and I, though Marcus undoubtedly already knew this about Night Orchid.
"You know she was really nice. Our interaction was very brief, but she was the first person I spoke to when I woke up and she immediately rushed into action to help me." I tell Mother Crane. This seems to pique her interest.
"I could give her your number. That way you can personally thank her." Crane tells me, and I hesitate for a second before nodding at her. She moves really close to me and puts the phone in front of us. I smile at the phone but don't actually look at it and listen to a soft clicking sound when Crane takes the selfie, which I know she'll be texting to Night Orchid in a second. Mother Crane pulls the phone to her face and begins to furiously type something.
I turn back to Marcus and we continue the tour, with him telling me about the train's automation. The train comes to a stop and Marcus continues the tour. I eventually feel my phone buzz and I pull it out of my pocket only to see a text from a twelve digit phone number. I am unsurprised to see that the text is from Night Orchid. It's a simple text introducing herself, and saying that she's glad I was able to get some help.
I tap on the text and type out a quick message thanking her for her help, and expressing my shock that the two of the first people I've met in this city are related. Almost as soon as I send the text I get an alert notifying me that she has "Reacted" to my text, specifically she has "Laugh-reacted" to what I wrote, and I lightly shake my head as I let out a quiet chuckle. This world's technology is, thankfully, quite Earth-like so understanding how to use most of what I've seen so far is not hard.
Marcus, Crane, and I continue our tour for several minutes. Now that Crane is no longer distracted she is fully present and reveals an impressive command of a surprisingly complex but mostly redundant/emergency use only console. The most shocking thing that happens is that at one point the train exits the underground and we dart across a busy section of the city for a few moments. We zip through at high speeds and in moments we are back underground.
I manage to get a full tour of the conductor's cabin before I am told that we are reaching my stop. As soon as I hear this I spring to life, hoping up and thanking my companions for their help. Both of them smile at me, and Marcus offers to be my co-conductor for my first few shifts. Crane looks at me to see if I'd be interested in this and I nod.
"Well, that settles it! It's pretty commonplace for there to be two conductors on a train anyway." She says, before getting up and offering to walk me out of the station. I happily accept her offer, and when the train comes to a stop we are quick to disembark, but only after Marcus and I exchange phone numbers. We find ourselves in another subterranean station and when I step off of the train the strange boost to my senses returns to me.
Mother Crane quickly guides me through the tunnels towards the escalator. She occasionally glances at her phone and smiles as she types out new messages. Along the way, she explains that so long as trains are not parked in a space between platforms there is a "Hard light projector" that allows people to save time by creating temporary platforms under people's feet which they can use to save time by walking between platforms. I feel my phone vibrate as Crane and I make our way to the escalator. When we reach the turnstiles Crane turns to me and begins to speak.
"So I'm still at work. I've got to go and do a few tasks before I can clock out for the day. Among other things I'll be determining your schedule, and your first shift will probably be sometime in the next few days. Tomorrow is the start of the weekend, and Marcus's next shift isn't until the middle of next week. That said, it looks like some of my other relatives would like to meet you." She tells me, grinning.
"Oh? I mean I'm new in town. I'd love a chance to make some more friends." I tell her, causing her to smile at me.
"Okay! In that case, you should stop by my sister's house tomorrow for dinner. I'll text you the time and address. If you need help getting there you should know that since you don't have any money right now you'll need to use the metro… Unless Night Orchid gives you a ride or something. But I'll just do something to make navigating the city a lot easier for you." She says before asking for my phone. I hand it to her and she begins to tap on it very quickly.
I listen to the sounds of her fingers on the digital keyboard of the phone. In seconds she returns the thing to me and there is a map on the screen.
"So all you need to do to figure out how to get from your apartment, which you'll be able to get to just by going up the escalator and into the building across the street, is enter your address and then my sister's address. It'll tell you what combination of trains you need to take to get over to the Orangewalk Neighborhood." She informs me.
I grin at her and navigate the phone's menus until I get over to the brief text exchange I have begun with Night Orchid. Night Orchid has asked me how I'm finding everything. I quickly type out a summary of how the day has gone, while Mother Crane tells me how to use the turnstile.
"Okay… When you head up the escalator go to the building across the street and hand the people located behind a desk just past the front door your ID. They'll see that you are a new arrival, sort of, and tell you how to get to your actual apartment. It should be done via teleporter." She adds, after explaining how to use my ID to get in and out of the station.
I smile at her and say farewell, before I take my ID and tap it against a device attached to a nearby turnstile. I turn and walk through the turnstile before I head over to the escalator and step onto it. I sense my senses decreasing in potency, but when I step off the escalator and find myself in the middle of a massive housing complex the boost returns.
"The rules that dictate this must be weird as hell… Is it every time I'm on solid… ground?" I ask myself, even as I step forward and take a look at my surroundings. All around me large buildings loom overhead, and I can see everything from schools to restaurants and grocery stores, as well as huge apartment buildings. Countless people head to and from various locations, and so I quickly begin to make my way over to the building directly across the street from the entrance to the metro station.
The next few minutes pass by in a blur. I quickly enter the building, find myself in a large dorm-like lobby where several people mill about and watch TV or play games like darts, introduce myself to some of the people behind a desk protected from the rest of the lobby by a large glass pane, present my ID, get told where my apartment is, and finally am told to go step onto another glowing circle. Before I am teleported, I get taught how to use the teleporter, which is as simple as holding my ID and stepping into the circle. Annoyingly, this particular teleporter is only linked to units throughout the Megablocks When I do I am teleported from the lobby over to a long hallway and I get to spend a few minutes wandering the hallway until I finally find my apartment.
I approach the electric lock and tap my ID against it. I hear the door unlock and I open it. I take a deep breath as I study the small living room arrayed before me. Inside of it is a decently large television, a table, and two small sofas. Next to the living room is a tiny but fully furnished kitchen, complete with basic things like a clean-looking stove and a small fridge.
All the walls in the apartment are painted either a neutral shade of yellow or white. There is absolutely nothing here that tells anyone anything about me, but I also have enough to survive. Kind of. I have… no food, and technically no money, but because of the welcome package the city gives its newcomers I DO have the ability to go get food.
I enter the apartment and shut the door behind me before walking past both rooms and entering a small hallway. The hallway leads to the one bedroom in the place, which only has a bed, a vanity, and a closet filled with clothes that are nondescript and solidly colored. There is a clean bathroom filled with generic-brand cleaning supplies that are literally labeled "Generic-Brand". I sit down on the bed and pull out my phone.
The device is a small rectangle, and yet it is one of my most important possessions at the moment. I study it and am surprised when a message appears across its screen informing me that it is now connected to my home WiFi. I immediately get a notification asking me if I'd like to install the standard social media apps. I decide to just go for it, and I watch as the device begins to do just that.
Several icons appear in the upper left corner of my phone's screen as numerous applications begin to get downloaded simultaneously. I also notice that there is no indicator of how charged my phone is, and this prompts me to go ahead and try to see if I even have a phone charger. I am unsurprised to find that I don't have one after I spend a minute combing through my wallet for one.
I take a beat to see the phone's features. I see things like it being able to surf the internet, take pictures, and just generally do whatever a smartphone from my world could do. This is a relief since this is the only advanced technology I currently own.
I quickly type out a message to Night Orchid. As I type it I consider whether or not to send it, but I ultimately decide to just have fun with it.
"Hey, I think I overheard someone on the train mention something about phones being able to add pictures to contacts. Wanna do that?" I ask, and as I send the message I wonder how it'll be received. It's a lie that I overheard it, but I mean Mother Crane and I did take a selfie together earlier. There is a long, awkward silence, well "Silence" is not the right word, but as I wait for a response I begin to get alerts telling me that apps have been successfully installed. The apps have goofy spoof names, like "Instaview" and "ReadFace" which strongly suggests that some of the people here are either from Earth or are from a world that is Earth-like in its development.
I begin to go through the process of creating profiles on the different apps. It is when I am on "Instaview", this world's goofy version of Instagram, that I get a text from Night Orchid that has a file attached to it according to the preview I get. I open the text and see a picture of her smiling in the same outfit she was wearing when I first met her.
"I just got done volunteering and am not home yet, so now you have a picture of me as you remember me. Now's your turn." The text reads. I lay down on the bed and tap the device until I find the camera. When I do I fiddle with it and manage to figure out how to activate the front-facing camera and gasp when I see something surprising: my own face.
My face is visibly different from how it was before. My skin is flawless, and my teeth are stark white and perfect. My eyes are dramatically different, now being a cool blue color and having a star-shaped mark in the middle of them. Even my hair is different, being shorter and lighter than it was before. My hair was dark brown before, but now it's almost dirty blonde. The Guide COMPLETELY changed me. I look radically different, markedly better than I did before.
"Huh… That's weird." I exclaim, even as I take a selfie and send it to Night Orchid. I quickly type a second message and add it to the text chain.
"It's nice to see your face. Everything happened so fast earlier that I didn't get a chance to tell you that I liked your hair." I write, even as I put the phone down and glance at the ceiling of the room.
I'm all alone in a new city. No one here knows me, and even if someone knew me back in Montana they'd certainly not recognize me. I consider getting up and going to get some food but weirdly enough I don't feel hungry. I go back to making profiles on various apps, and I quickly text Mother Crane to see if she can send me the selfie we took. A minute later she texts me it, and I quickly begin to post the picture on different apps. I then get up and take another selfie while standing against my bedroom wall, which I use as my profile picture.
By the time about an hour has passed I've created profiles on assorted social media apps, even a few ones for dating and meeting new people. I glance out the window of my bedroom and I can see that night has fully fallen on the city when I finally start to feel the slightest bit hungry. I quietly exit my bedroom and in minutes I am out of the apartment building and standing in the chilly air of Vaporwave City, free to explore to my heart's content.