Special Day, Cost Of The Society and Octagon

Red Starry Terrace, City Control and Service Office, Goremire District, 

Red Starry Terrace was A Newly Opened Building in Goremire. The said building today was crowded with a lot of people standing in front of it in dozens of rows, on that nice morning. Each Line has more than one hundred people in them.

The queues went from the stairs of the building to all the way to the main road. More than half of them are youths in their late teens, both genders mingled in there.  All of them could be seen excitedly chattering amongst themselves, literally buzzing like bees.

Cops in blue uniforms carefully patrolling around the area. Also Staffs dressed in Brown Coats with an unique insignia could be seen walking amongst the crowd with a pad and their Boden.  Now and then, they engage in small talk with these spirited youths. 

The youths in the front of the queues called by their names in ten to twelve Kids. They  ushered into the building under the guidance of interns and assistants. It could be seen from the excited and slightly nervous bunch of teenagers, all of them were eager to get this done as soon as they could. 

This month was no holiday or any festival on this particular day but to these teens, the day had significant importance to them. City law states that every teenager above seventeen has to obey the law and register their Own Exclusive Boden and their identity, upon their seventeenth birthday.  The Department of City Control and Service helps them with this process of officially letting them take steps into  society.

Boden was a must have tool these days in almost every part of the world.  It was simply quite a versatile tool to have,  nowadays in society not only was this useful for connection and communications of New Generations.  Boden in its own way grew into an exclusive identification for someone of this generation.  Which can't be forged easily because of the technological development in Arkine.

It just started as a communication tool slowly developed in what it was today, from communication to bank transfers, trade, identification etc. It's not wrong to say it has become fully integrated into people's lives.

As the era of technology development started, none of the Countries or Empires willing to lag behind. knowing full well the new generation in their respective countries will be the one to suffer the consequences because of their decisions. 

No one will take this blame or hinder the path of the new generation because of pride and suspicions. Not to mention ruling people know if they lag behind, it's no different than opening the back door for supernatural powers to sink their claws in their very motherland.

Of course there are still some small kingdoms or independent cities still following age old paper valediction and documentation.  In the last half dozen decades people were well adapted into the fastly developing technological innovations. 

Invention of weapons with great power, medical field invention and improvement, agricultural development wasn't the only ones.  Useful gadgets like Bodens were considered a milestone, along with supercomputers. 

Those below the age of seventeen aren't allowed to register their own exclusive communication devices.  Even though they are allowed to use one for education and communication purposes there are conditions. This must be joined and guided connection with one of their parents or guardians for safety purposes.

The city department of Control and Service conducted this registration all around the city for fifteen continuous days.  Which was arranged by the city government at least once. every four months, that's three times a year.  From high class people to homeless people everyone has to abide by these rules.

All classes of people have to send teenagers in their family or under their care to the nearby district office for registration at this time period, there will be no compromises. 

So the other half of the crowd was either these youths' respective parents or guardians. Although it's not really necessary for them to attend or require their presence.  But having them here was more than just support for  teenagers with certain family backgrounds and some extra perks.

Within the bunch of noisy mixed crowds and teenagers with the raging hormones exist an anomaly; it's just that they weren't aware of the danger they put themselves in,  who were on the verge of suffering a huge disaster.

Amongst the front of one of these queues, stood a teenage youth in his tattered, dusty overcoat. He had this messy hair and dull look about him patiently waiting for his turn in the line. 

Though he looked unperturbed and had a vacant expression. The truth was the youth was ever so conscious of kids and their respective guardians. The buzzing atmosphere with numerous strong emotions did greatly disturbed him. 

The youth was struggling to hold his impassive face. There was a trace of uncomfortableness and another strong emotion fleeting past his eyes. 

Unaware of the danger a group of youths nearby casting him glances of varying degrees of expression most dominant one being wariness and disgust.

which was very clear on their face, some were openly showing their distaste by making snide and rude comments loudly. While others put on a disgusting expression as if even talking about him beneath their status.

The youth paid them no mind as their provocation went through one ear to another, fortunately they didn't bother to actively provoke him or bully him in their excitement which certainly wouldn't have ended well. 

No one is foolish enough to get into trouble today, especially in this kind of place. The staff in brown coats could easily punish troublers. Simply find them to send any serious bully to the prohibition center. The Department might outright refuse to register their Boden which means it would take another four months at least. 

A cop in his thirties walked up to the brooding youth and softly said " Kid, it will be soon your turn, So go at least wash up your face and neatly comb your hair.  It wouldn't hurt you to look a little smart don't you think? "

" Sigh! really... You will need it, they are going to take your pictures, do interviews and biometric signatures so present yourself appropriately to help you get it? "The cop patiently explained it in little detail after seeing the youth's somewhat lost look.

He heard a derisive snort from the side and a few muffled laughter from the kids around them. The cop leveled these kids with an intimidating glare then comfortingly said " Don't take these kids' attitude to heart, okay? Just know that they are pretty much nervous, more or less terrified like you...they are just good at pretending to be strong "

" Now listen to me kid, go wash up your face and tidy yourself up. In the meanwhile I'll  cover for you ....go on" the Officer gently patted him gently urging him to freshen up. The youth looked at him for a few seconds and nodded at him directly going towards the way the officer gestured him earlier.

The Officer shook his head helplessly and turned to look at the teenagers around him sternly. " Do you kids think it's alright to bully a kid like him? "His eyes paused briefly at the arrogant looking teenager who was wearing a costly fancy outfit and it was this kid who was the most provocative of this bunch.

" I'll have you know, if I saw you guys picking on him or anyone else for the rest of the day...I'll make sure you all well repented for this kind of undesirable behavior. Is that clear? " the kids flinched away from him. The rich kid on the other hand had a frown on his face.

" Mr Miller, don't you think you are going a little overboard with this today? We merely teased him a little bit, just so he could relax before the registration. What's wrong with that? I- if you make trouble for us then... "

"Oh, Go On! Was that a threat? Why did suddenly stop " Mr Miller intensely look at the boy " I really love to see what are you going to do about it " a dangerous smile appeared on his face " I think, you mistake me for some Spineless Worms is that correct... hehe, all I'm going to say was be prepared if you really plan to do anything to that kid.. "

*Gulp!* *Hisss*

Everyone around them cautiously took a couple of steps. Their faces were solemn, especially their guardians who didn't interfere in this whole fiasco. Unlike these rebellious kids they could tell the officer wasn't simple.

"I-im So-sorry, officer Miller, I didn't mean anything by that "  the rich kid stammered and backed away thoroughly intimidated by the Cop. Mr Miller inwardly sneered at the kid's cowardice, he half expecting them to react this way he didn't pay any more attention to this kid.

He merely pulls this off to intimidating nearby kids and some unruly adults as well. It would be troublesome to get into an argument with these haughty adults here. Who thought of themselves highly, in this kind of situation it would be a little messy.

His years of service taught him how to judge people, the kid was someone ' all bark no bite ' Who has yet to see the world for what it is.

Yes, he could probably be dangerous to his peers, if a certain situation presented but then again these are kids with poor background these days, especially in this area, who were easily submitted and powerless.

They saw the world more clearly than a pompous rich heir ever could, when they were forced to mature in their childhood and realize the horrors of street life they understood the value of a small amount of hope or chance.

But to him this kid was merely a nuisance, he wasn't going to tremble whenever he heard someone threatening him with wealth.  money alone meant nothing in Ceptron not to mention his own background, unlike most people he doesn't choose this job for its petty salary.

He heard a gasp from his side, with a raised eyebrow he silently followed where this kid was looking. Even though he was a little speechless by the silent kid's appearances, ' I didn't notice the kid was this good looking! ' he secretly thought to himself.

"There there! this is what I am talking about " Mr Miller lightly thumped him on the back but stopped when he saw the unblinking eyes of the kid Mr Miller forced a smile he really wanted to know what the kid was thinking in his head.

Mr Miller couldn't help but feel sympathy, he accidentally got acquainted with the kid just yesterday he felt bad for the kid thus helping him out today. He was assigned four days here due to this event.

It's from his second day he took notice of this silent kid who came here waiting on the row but never managed to enter the department, knowing that the kid was gullible and silent type people kept using excuses to take his place or out right ignore him.

He first thought the kid was hesitating or something like kids from a poor background. Or had some inferiority complex but he knew, even an ant would bite back if someone kept proding but surprisingly he didn't have a slight change in the expression with the same dull look. 

Mr Miller even assumed the kid wasn't mentally developed well, but still didn't do anything about this situation. Though what they were doing was wrong, it wasn't a huge crime that he had to intervene. 

This kind of exploitations are everywhere, people are greedy and selfish by nature, it was no guarantee the victim wouldn't do the same thing if one day he lucked out.  This kind of situation couldn't be changed by external forces or even law, people can only change by themselves for that the victims had to learn to stand up for themselves.

He shook his head at this kind thoughts, he was quite passionate to join the job, it was only later after years of service he understood the unfathomableness of the society.

He learned from the kid from what little he could reply.  That kid's family was an immigrant here, later lost his father somewhere growing up in an orphanage , later kidnapped by some lunatics but escaped from them by accident but suffering periodical memory loss now he wandered around the city literally living In the street.

But this wasn't why he decided to help him, rather the innocence and nativity, from the pure curiosity in his eyes, moved Miller. He didn't want to see the kid dragged into the abyss . At least helping him out with the registration might pave a way for him in the long run.

' It's the least I could do for this kid' he thought to himself. It didn't take long for an assistant to call names once again.

" Mikael Octagon! " Miller looked at the kid, and wondered about the strange surname of this kid.

"Kid, go on they are calling you in...good luck!" Miller patted the kid lightly on the back with a smile.