The Titan Fair starts

The Titan fair was an annual event that lasted a single day and happened in the middle of the city's main avenue.

Every year when the date arrived the avenue was closed and transformed into a huge fair where multiple brands would show off their newest models and advances to possible clients and news reporters.

The fair didn't limited itself to Titan builder, allowing also any Titan related content to be presented, like Hunter teams recruitment booths, Titan weapons research booths, Titan painting service booths and even Titan souvenir booths and Titan games booths.

The event lasted two days and attracted people from all around the country, bringing plenty of tourism to the city, making everywhere look more busy than usual.

The day had finally arrived, the partaker were working full throttle to set up their booths before the opening in the afternoon, and among them a sixteen years old student was doing his best to set up a booth all on his own, and obviously that student was me.

Because of the recent events I had lost the main attraction of my booth, my own homemade Titan, but the booth slot had already been paid for and I would have to pay a fine if I was to leave it alone, so I had no chance but prepare something anyway.

Luckily it was not like I had nothing to show the world! During the crafting process of my homemade Titan I registered all steps I took in my diary, as well as the errors I committed and solutions I created when lacking some specific parts.

Sure, it was a bit of a mess. Taking everything, categorizing them, filtering my personal life information, and formatting it into a presentable shape took me the whole Friday. Doing all this while hiding from grandpa was quite stressful but somehow I made it!

After I was done, I scanned my newly made book to the computer, uploaded it to a free file share server, created a QR code with it's public link and saved the image in a big image which I printed making a big poster.

Of course a single big poster wouldn't be enough to fill my booth that was made to support a Titan, so I also printed many photos of the Titan's blueprint, as well as the photos I took during the creation process and during the tests, and made a big panel full of pictures.

With this added up, half of the space was filled, but half of it was still empty, so I installed a big camping tent covered in black fabric on the space that was left.

But why would I do that? To have a comfortable place to sleep during the fair? To allow couples a place to flirt and have fun? Of course not! Or at least that was not the plan...

So after the tent was completely installed I added the finishing touch to it, installing my grandpa's old projector on the ceiling and making it show all videos I recorded from the tests we made in loop, including the walk in the park from last time.

Seeing my booth preparations finished, I smiled satisfied with the results.

"This looks way better than my booth at the school fair!"

Maybe it was not as impactful as my Titan but it was the best options I could think about at the moment.

Noon arrived in a flash, the fair was officially open and people started storming in like crazy.

As I watched the people coming in my heart started racing and my head forgot all answers I had prepared for possible questions people could come to ask me. I felt like I would be trampled by those people, like a little wooden gate having to face an invasion of the Roman empire army.

My hands started to shake and my mouth felt quite dry, soon after I started feeling a little dizzy and my face started pale. It was obvious to anyone seeing me that I was having a panic attack, but no one there was my friend or my acquaintance so they did nothing to help me out, and it was only when I tripped on my own feet, falling down on the ground, right on top of my poster that I calmed down.

I looked at the poster and saw all those moments of my life that led me to being here. My first robotic hand, the time when I completed the exoskeleton of the Titan, the time when I fall after trying to make it move, the time when I fell asleep inside the cockpit while installing the O.S., all unforgettable moments that led me down the road of Titan designer.

This road had been quite long until now but I was still far from reaching it's ending point. This was not the time to panic and trip on myself, this was the time to stand firm and proud of all my achievements and show the world that I was ready for more.

Luckily my place was quite far away, not only from the entrance but also from the main attractions, so it gave me enough time to calm down and prepare myself again for what was to come. I slapped my face twice with both hands and got up on my feet again, then I fixed the posters and stared back at the visitors coming toward me.

This time I no longer had the eyes of a coward, this time my eyes shined like a predator looking at it's prey and from this moment on my determination never wavered until the end of the fair.

--//--

The clock ticked and time passed by but almost no people appeared interested in what Joel's booth had to offer, so after experiencing being ignored most of the time the initial hype calmed down a lot and boredom started taking over, and just as sleepiness started forcing Joel to the dream land a hand on his shoulder brought him back to the real world.

"Hey son, I think I recognize that projector inside the tent..."

"Eh? Ah! Hehehe, hello grandpa. Sorry for taking it without asking for your permission."

"That's fine. That old thing was just accumulating dust anyway. It's good for it to be used once in a while, just make sure to be careful with it and bring it back home by the end of the day."

"No problem."

"So, how is it going?"

"Probably because of the lack of appeal most people ignore my tent. Half of the people talking to me ask information about the bathroom and the other half is actually lost and want directions on how to go to a determined place. Only really few show real interest in my booth and actually watch the videos on the tent. It also doesn't help that most people have some prejudice against teenagers, they look at my booth and only see me here, so they think the responsible is away and only the trainee is available... Being a teenager sucks..."

"Hahahahaha! Well, that makes sense! If you were in their place, maybe you would think the same thing. It's not everyday that you see a teenager able to create his own Titan on his grandpa's garage, right? Also you can't compare yourself to all those famous brands spread around the fair. Things will get better as you gain more recognition, but at least for now they should grow quite slow as you are doing all by yourself."

"Yeah, I know, but still...it's unfair! The guy beside me has a complete boring shield project but because he is older and his shield is shinny, more people come ask questions to him than to me. The girl up front is showing a middle grade science experiment but it's attracting more attention than me. The guy on the other side is showing a game made in RPGmaker and has more visitors than me! Heck! I am quite sure that even the people selling popcorn are getting more recognition than me!"

"Never underestimate the power of popcorn! Hahahahaha! Don't worry, this is just your first time. Your Titan was destroyed so you lost most of your appeal. I'm sure that on the following years things will get better as long as you don't give up!"

"Or maybe I could just cross dress and seduce a few people right now!"

"Hahahahaha! Great idea! Go for it, youngster! I will make sure to take a picture so we can add to the family album!"

"Of course I'm just joking grandpa. My despair is not so big that I have to resort to this kind of things."

"Oh, that's a pity! I still remember your maid cafe from last year..."

"STOP! THAT SUBJECT IS FORBIDDEN!!!!!!"

"Hahahahaha!!! Well, let me take care of your place for a while. Go have some fun while I take a rest on your chair. Youngsters shouldn't stay in a place for too long. Go take a look at the new Titan's that were just released! I'm sure this will help you get rid of the sleepiness that's taking over you."

"Thanks grandpa! You rock! Then I will go take a look!"

"Sure! Take your time!"