MOAB

Chapter 31: Galene @ 2.8x nhs

Chapter 31: Galene @ 2.8x nhs

He told her no. She liked it when he told her no, but she wasn’t gonna tell him that now, would she? Nope. She asked him to come with at AthensCon, the Greek Comic-Con. It was early December, and she remembered having tickets months ago. Gosh, it was before they started dating. Time really flew by.

So she had nerdy fun with some of the IT guys from work.

Then she came back bearing gifts. Nerdy gifts.

“I’m not an anime fan, I tell you!” Greg complained, pushing the cartoon doll back.

“Sure you are. You’ve learnt Japanese and everything,” Gal shrugged and pushed forward.

“No! Japan, in case you didn’t know, is the technological forerunner of the entire world. They’re like 15 years into the future. That’s why I learnt Japanese.”

“I don’t buy it.”

“You don’t need to buy it. But I really don’t like anime, never did. Sorry.” Greg shrugged in apology.

“Fine. I’ll leave it down in IT, one of the nerds will surely wanna snatch it.”

“I’m sure they’ll appreciate it more. But, thanks honey, for buying me a gift.” Greg kissed her softly.

“I suck at getting gifts. Seriously, what’s wrong with sending me your wish list and be done with it?” Gal complained in his arms.

“I don’t need anything but you,” he said softly.

“Awww! So sweet. Love you. Now please excuse me, I’m off to trade this fertility-goddess statue with a couple of favours from my fellow nerds.”

The IT crowd was amped up on nerd culture and sugar. They had their customary party after AthensCon, where the guys geeked out over the new games or movies and the girls found new guilty pleasures to excel in.

Eugene approached her. Oh no. Think fast, Gal!

She pushed the cartoon doll with the enormous breasts into his face. “Oh, hi there Galene, I couldn’t help but noticing…”

Gal felt tired. She took a five-second nap. Oh, he was still talking to her?

“… And the new series is definitely better than the last one, but the actress in it is new in the business, I read a blog post about it. Or was it an Agora photo? I can’t seem to remember right now, but I have it saved…”

Gal nodded and pulled up her Timeshaver source code. Yup, she could improve it. She had a new idea, that of searching the net for memes and replayed scenes, so that the algorithm would flag them as important and make sure not to shave them off. Eh, it was a bit hard to implement, but it was worth it, especially on cult-status titles where people watched them over and over. You didn’t want to shave off the best bits.

“… I had the new one, but my cousin, you remember my cousin, right? You liked his post on Agora a few years back, surely you remember…”

It is by will alone I put my mind in motion. It is by will al- Gal stopped herself. What was she doing? She was thinking whole thoughts in-between the man’s sentences. Granted, his sentences were ginormous, but still.

She checked back on the code she pulled. She had put two new annotations to work on later, without thinking it. And she had been mumbling the Mentat mantra.

Galene looked around the party. It was a bit dour. Office acquaintances trying to have some fun time, drinking at the same environment they spent hours each day, hating it. Why didn’t they arrange for something somewhere else? Gal was new to the corp, but the guys had been doing this for years now.

She listened in to their conversations.

Had she been drugged?

It was as if they were bored, slurring their words. But they weren’t actually slurring them, they were simply talking slowly and clearly.

But, too, damn, slow.

“… And um, I know you’ve been spending time up on, uh…”

Come on already! Finish the sentence.

Say your piece.

Galene had time between all the sentences and the ums and uhs to think entire thoughts.

She needed to ask Greg. She opened up a chat window in her veil. “Have I been talking to you like this? Slowly, like these people?”

Eugene went on, waving the boobed goddess statue around, blurting useless trivia about the show or whatever.

“Yes,” Greg replied, “but don’t feel bad.”

“Don’t feel bad? You fucker, you didn’t tell me you saw me as a retard all this time!”

“Never. You might be in shock, babe. Have some vodka.”

She raised her plastic cup. It was all done in dream-motion, like moving around in syrup. One of the guys stumbled and shot an elbow at her ribs. She casually stepped aside and let him hit the air.

“Oh my gods, so sorry Gal! I fell…”

“No worries.” She turned her attention to her nemesis. George, the popular dude. This was her time to strike. She recited the mantra a few times. Eugene finally shut up, but she didn’t care. This was payback time.

Gal strolled over to the cool guys corner and plopped herself down in the middle. It was as if she could see the strands of the discussion, and she simply had to tug on one to make it vibrate.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the wondergal,” George said, laughing at his own joke.

“Wondergal says hi,” Gal said acting more tipsy than she actually was. She gestured and prepared a meme right as he spoke, it was easy to find an online tool that made the picture you wanted in seconds.

George cleared his throat and put his hand on her shoulder. “Look, Gal,” he said deliberately, he knew she didn’t like being called that by him, “this is the big boys area. Why don’t you go over there with the losers, where you belong?”

Gal stood up and glared at him. He laughed, his posse laughed. He thought he’d won. Any reaction out of her would be a win for him. Throw her drink in his face? He wins. Throw a tantrum? He wins. Cry? He wins. Yell at him? He wins. That’s the thing with bullies.

But Gal’s father used to tell her, that the worst thing you can do to bullies is ignore them.

Gal walked a few paces and made sure to sway her butt. As soon as she was certain she had their attention, she made a picture show up in the veil. Everybody could see it, overlaid at her back.

It was a picture of Regina George, the bully in the Mean Girls movie, saying, “You can’t sit with us!”

There was a pause, and the place erupted with laughter.

George turned red.

He’d never live that one down.