The Air-Car announced: “Leaving Residential District.” The rectangle-shaped, pastel-colored homes transformed into large, boxy buildings covered in glowing holograms and blinking signs. This was now the Entertainment District.
Calista’s eyes raked over the pulsing, lively surroundings of lights and colors, comfortably leaned back in her seat inside the family’s luxury Air-Car. Her mother went on and on about Whitley Geanna, now focusing on her run and anticipated win in the Planetary Leader elections. Calista tuned her excited rant about ‘reformation’ out, instead watching the fingernail-sized, bright chips raining down onto the streets like maple seeds; they were tiny chips that pedestrians could pick up and observe, potentially giving them answers on where they should go for whatever they wanted.
The advertisements all varied in shapes, sizes, and subjects, which always annoyed Calista— one second, one would look at a small ad for a prestigious cyber-school program; the next, one would see a large bottle of a Mearthian beer brand, practically shoved in one’s face. She always thought it was too unorganized and all over the place, a clear sign of people who didn’t know what the glitch they wanted to do.
But one running theme across the plethora of ads was the Versus Games. The largest holograms slowly rotating above the multi-floor buildings were of famous faces and kicking silhouettes. Calista couldn’t help gazing at them, most of all at the handsome boy with messy brown curls and sapphire blue eyes that rivaled Prince Rainer from her favorite HARP show, Astrana.
Harrison Smith: the fourth runner-up of the 2346 Versus Games that caused a huge amount of controversy and was cursed to bear the call sign ‘Cheater’. An Earthian boy like him never should have been able to stand up to the more powerful species of the Utopia. Hajja— the fire-breathing, notorious planet of hot-tempered people with blood-red skin and orange eyes. Klaus— proud and sadistic fighters with crystalline skin of ice that preferred freezing their opponents to near-death. Dnili— clever shapeshifters of coal-colored skin and milk-white eyes that always freaked the bugs out of Calista. All of them were species that Earthians should never live up to.
Unlike most of the Socializer community, she didn’t think the Versus Games were as violent as they said. While they were centered on fights and were mostly used to recruit for planetary militia, they were meant to promote good sportsmanship and unity among the planets in friendly competition.
The Games were created after the War of Ten; a terrible conflict that arose after Hajja refused to free one of their slave planets, Paeseo. Ten planets of the recently-formed Milky Way Utopia, including Earth, were involved in a ten (Earth) year war that killed most of their populations and drove them to despair.
Once all the planet leaders finally met diplomatically in 2139, Hajja finally let Paeseo go, on the condition that they would prove their worth as an independent planet by fighting them every few years. From then on, every planet took it upon themselves to prove their strength and ability to be independent through the quadrennial Versus Games, and the peace treaty that created the Games clearly stated that no lives would be lost, and no wars would break out, provided that everyone settled their disagreements through controlled combat and friendly sport.
The Games took a heavy rep hit after the death of Joanna ‘Robot’ Kajlinkho, a Paesearthian girl representing Planet Kwantan’s team. She’d died shortly after the 2346 Games were over, the injury too severe to survive. Even though it was confirmed an accident and the admins promised unbreakable armor in the next competition, it lost them a lot of followers and gave the Socializer’s ‘peace’ movement a lot of power.
The Socializers’ idea of peace was a world without any physical violence, leaving them with rumors, gossip, and secrets to hurt each other. Calista lived 24/7 in that environment, and it was anything but peaceful.
She’d have to enjoy these glimpses of the Games while she still could. Whitley Geanna was very likely to win the Planetary Leader election against Versus Legend Thiki Burna in February, and her plan was to eventually close all Versus schools on Earth.
As she gazed at a hologram of Lisa White’s face passing by— an Earthian woman with cat-like, amber colored eyes and dark blond hair—, the lights and colors suddenly disappeared, leaving the plain, gray cubes that were the buildings. “Why’d you turn them off?” she asked her mother, who had switched the car windows to block the ads.
“I can’t stand them,” she answered. “They’re too unorganized and all over the place. These people don’t know what the glitch they want to do. They should at least categorize them.”
Calista nodded blankly, agreeing, but she knew her mother was just blocking out the Versus Games ads. She hadn’t turned them off until she saw Calista looking at her childhood idol’s projection. Lisa White was the first Earthian to win the Versus Games in centuries, winning in 2338. Calista was obsessed with her as a child, and grew up watching her career develop back when the house didn’t have micro-cameras in every corner to watch them.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Her mother used to be more lenient. Calista had been striving to be perfect to the public for as long as she could remember, but they at least had their privacy within their walls. Her father was around a lot more often, and he’d introduced her to the Games and all their different variations, watching them together as a pastime. But when Calista turned ten, her mother suddenly decided that the scheduled family broadcasts they had were not enough.
The fans demanded more, so they’d get more by watching every single detail of their lives. Waking up, having breakfast, training for pageantry, spending time with channel friends, having dinner, going to sleep… sleeping. The family would have one family meal together every evening, displaying a united and close relationship, but they couldn’t be more distant. Calista’s father was always at work, avoiding his wife and her career, and her siblings were always locked up in their rooms; she didn’t resent them. If she had the choice, she’d do the same.
At the Runway House, a huge group of multicolored hair and crop-topped outfits waited for them. All of them started squealing like fangirls when the AirCar pulled up and Calista stepped out like a celebrity. The leaders always took turns to be fashionably late (except Elizabeth) and Calista’s day was today.
Task Complete: Arrive at Runway House
Task In Progress: Complete showcase rehearsal
“My girls!” She reached out and gripped a whole bunch of fingers as she walked through the crowd, smiling at the plethora of excited faces. Her UI had their names and Levels popping up above their heads, some names missing due to their Level; those at Level 25 and above would have the ‘privilege’ of the leaders knowing their names.
Marleigh Doreesey (Member)— Level 34
REL Status: Friendly Acquaintance
Gatlin Innit (Member)— Level 28
REL Status: Friendly Acquaintance
Unknown (Follower)— Level 18
REL Status: Acquaintance
At the doorway were the three channel leaders.
Danica Lavini
SociaLights Leader
Level 427
Danica was dressed in a fluffy pink crop top that looked like foam and a matching white skirt. The colors blended well with her caramel skin tone, and her brown hair was perfectly straight, giving a balance to the ‘fluffy’ look. Behind her was her mother, Iva, who had a fitted saree bodysuit in the same pink as her daughter’s shirt. Both of their brown eyes were modded to sparkle, which always bothered Calista— iris sparkling was not comfortable. It was itchy and would leave one’s eyelids burning after sleeping.
She didn’t know how Danica did it, but the girl would never leave her eyes at their default state. Brown eyes were too ‘plain’.
Rebecca Silverman
SociaLights Leader
Level 373
Rebecca’s eyes were a natural blue, which matched her off-shoulder bodysuit, and her hair was another different color. She was originally a blonde, but Calista hadn’t seen her blond hair in years. Nearly every week was another color; this time, it was cotton-candy pink. Much better than that ugly lime green she’d had for a couple weeks for Paeseoan Green-Vein Syndrome Awareness Month.
Her mother, Braxli, was beside her, her hair in a pastel blue and her eyes modded to sparkling silver. She wore a scaly white bodysuit to show off her arms, which had already been ballooned up. The Silvermans were always ahead with their trends.
Elizabeth Dutton
SociaLights Leader
Level 230
Elizabeth was behind the two girls, trying to peek over their shoulders. She was shorter than all of them at 5’4”, with a pale, freckled face and curly ginger hair that both of the other girls insisted she straighten, including a vote from the other members to pressure her. The bright red had darkened to a brown-to-red ombre, which did look nice, but Calista never saw anything wrong with the ginger color.
“Are we ready to dance?!” Danica shouted, making all the girls cheer.
Calista wanted to try and enjoy this. It was one of the few things in her life she could control, and she was very good at it. Dance was one of the things that made their channel so popular. Other than a way to enjoy oneself at a party, dancing wasn’t done by actual people. ‘Professional dancers’ were always Generated People, so seeing the SociaLights doing real choreographies was something unique, and something Calista had real talent for. Dancing was the only thing she was good at besides fashion design and…
She didn’t want the word to pop into her brain, but it did. Her UI instantly warned her:
Flaw Risk: Violence
*Refrain from remembering previous training*
