Pristine's Problem | ONC 2024

07 | chaosophilic : the love for causing chaos

It surely was a partial mall, something Alan confirmed after being aware about the existence of a second floor. A genuinely smiling man stood in azure blazers amidst the overwhelming crowds advertised his new Arabic cuisine restaurant located on the second floor. Similarly, there were many other vibrant advertisement banners for boutiques and hypermarkets. Gazing at the bright billboards, Alan momentarily forgot his ultimate motive for arriving there.

He caught sight of the wooden reception desk and flurried in its direction. A young woman attired in a sleek carmine blazer and tailored pants stood anxious, one hand attending to incessant calls while the other hand constantly banged the keyboard. Her ebony locks partially covered the creases on her pale forehead whereas her makeup struggled to remain intact, combating the heat of tension amidst the air-conditioned room.

Upon sensing the arrival of a customer, the receptionist immediately altered her features and faced the guest, who panted heavily.

"Welcome to Pandora's Pacting Magistrate, sir! How may I help you?"

The angelic voice seemed to betray the loads of stress her brain held previously.

"Hi!" Alan greeted, appearing to look cool and casual.

"I want to use one of your magical services."

"Great sir!" the receptionist chirruped habitually, "Please give me some details and soon I will allot you your respective SPA who can assist in providing you your required service."

"Sure!"

Everything is going smoothly as of now...

Alan watched the woman tapping the delicate alphabets of the keyboard in agility and waited for the questionnaire.

"Okay, sir!" The receptionist shifted her gaze to the client, "Your name?"

"Alan Alteiner."

"Great! You are a human or Etherial?"

"I am a super- I mean, human."

The great battle of his identity clarification cooled down as the receptionist nodded merrily. He almost blurted out himself as a superhero, but barred his lips from completing the word as he felt diffident to call himself a supernatural human in front of someone who was supernatural by birth.

"Okay, sir! Are you a VIP member? Do you have the Ametrine Golden Points Card?"

"No, but seriously, do memberships and premium subscriptions exist here also?"

Alan was genuinely astonished by the existence of a 'points card' and expected a valid reason behind it. However, the receptionist was offended. On top of her hectic-day-at-work mood, Alan added something even better to pique her fury.

Her face stiffened, smile vanished and anger exuded long tentacles pouncing to sting Alan.

Filled with a visible frown to impart her chagrin, she riposted, "Why sir? Just because we are not humans does that mean we can't have membership features? Are those privileges only entitled to you people? Then how about asking a human-made agency for magical services? I am sure you wouldn't have a problem in being their premium member rather than ours!"

The activist within her spat rancid comments.

Alan stood bewildered. He was not expecting this at all and was extremely ashamed and disappointed of his behaviour.

My stupid mouth...

"No, I - I didn't mean like that," Alan stuttered, his voice faltering. His wild imaginations led him to weave a fearsome scene where he was dragged by the cops and charged for verbal abuse.