"Stand by"
"… we are almost there, okay, Armand selected an architect, in a way a local one, by the name of Castillo Doppel, there is plenty of conceptual work under his name, his main achievement is the tower…"
"But he helped with the re-construction, and re-designing of some streets and cities… of course it is hard to find information about him out of the country, so, I did my job, huhu; he is been working solely here for Armand, it was a surprise to hear that he selected him to design the tower, perhaps he had already planned to use his design, you know, with the idea of the purity of a thought…"
"So using his design from the start… would match with the entire vibe of Armand… but his alone, I tried looking for Castillo's style background and only found out he graduated from college, made a master's degree here, and is currently working on his PhD, sorry a second PhD; but something tells me it is more for show than to learning, people feel more comfortable when you have a paper trail behind you…"
"It is always like that in these times, proves for everything, especially for guys my age, like him, who already has a PhD… yeah, just your regular guy, like any of us, 'don't watch this video mom'…"
"He has an entire catalogue of works online that goes back years and years, from when he was sixteen or even fifteen years old, he publishes them online for free, if you run any of them through a good modeling software you can see for yourself how good he is, he must have grown up making concrete bricks or wooden pillars, or with an autocad at his disposal…"
"Maybe his family are also architects or builders… we don't know, he has no past, he has brothers and sisters, they look more like friends turned family or a family of orphans moving together after not being adopted, perhaps they come from one of the arts projects at the tower… you will see… no, no more spoilers, next video I promise…"
"hey, it is an introduction video… teasers are a must… as for Castillo he just popped out of nowhere and around Armand, the photo trail goes that far only… no, I'm not being mysterious… nor lazy… that happened only one time, how was I supposed to know that a teacher would use a chatbot to make the class more interesting, without realizing the bot didn't had any art knowledge…"
"I was eighteen years old, if a teacher tells me that they are still using mummies to make mummy brown color I ought to believe it… and carry that interesting knowledge through my entire college life… so, not my fault and moving on"
"Castillo… yes that's his name, no, no, legal name… if he changed it then nobody really knows his first name… yeah, perhaps he choose it himself, it matches his work and passion…"
"Oh thanks BAZ5 here we go people… the sunset should be starting right now… okay, the drone still has some juice… up we go… no, classic drone… yeah it is code for old drone, yes I wish I had one similar to the turbines, able to fly up to the stratosphere, perhaps I can make a case to get one… in the mean time you will get to see only two hundred meters up…"
"And here we go, That is the sphere at the end of the upper road reflecting the sunset… during the day the artwork called the diamond, it shimmers like one given how Armand asked for an art work to be built by using his panels on the inside of the sphere, a diamond has facets after all, and those extra rays of light shimmering are those panels…"
"The artist… Doc.op, made it while they were getting ready to create the hotel; and once the last facets inside the sphere were placed, the biggest diamond in the world was created and the hotel was ready to be built…"
"But as I was saying its name is the diamond, during the day when it hits it directly then it becomes a reflection of the sun, not as warm, nor as bright, but it does shimmers and moves warmly… no, the heat is redistributed through the sphere, same goes for the brightness, after all it is made with Armand's solar panels; it is called a star when the sun hits it"
"Still I would recommend using sunglasses during that time; and then during the night, I call it, the pearl, others said it is a black diamond; but here is the thing, you can only see its surface reflecting back everything at night, it has this eerie look that reflects everything in a darker tone, like if you were looking at another and darker dimension of the same world you are at…"
",,,Where your other self is making different choices and yet is walking the same path you are walking… okay, I got darker for a moment… and so is the sphere… I will add later a short clip of the different looks of the sphere, perhaps with the drone"
"Huh? No, the names were placed by the people, Armand calls it the tower, or in this case the center, like I told you, it all depends on who you're talking to, as it is with Armand, say his name and I will know who I'm speaking to, exactly, call him Ariana and I will know you are one of those people still stuck in the twenty twenties… yeah with zero respect for a person decisions…"
"Okay this ought to be a good closing scene… seriously? You prefer BAZ5… no, BAZ5 get off there; okay, let me go over the drill first… share, ask and comment… subscribe, comment and ask more than the other two; but not like that oaf, who wanted attention… damn it BAZ5… no… damn you…"
"Ten minutes to your alarm before the main alarm, the time is oh - seven - hundred and fifty hours, the weather for today will be sunny, pollution levels low, low greenhouse gas emissions, sunscreen is recommended, you have a hundred and eighty one new comments on eleven videos, a hundred and sixty two comments in twenty posts, fifty two new messages, thirty six pending mails, thirty six home notifications, fourteen desktop notifications, twelve on your laptop, twenty on your phone… only eighteen are priority…"
– aaahj… breakfast…! get the kitchen going, pancakes and salmon, cereal fruit and… do we have bread?
"Yes, we do, both cooked and uncooked"
– Good, good…
"…incoming call from the group, would you…"
– Put them through… hey, what's up?
"We lost Lauka, she just took a job at Surrgate to make characters and ploys like microwave dinner, like cattle to the slaughterhouse, for a paycheck, we lost her…"
"Stop talking like I just died…"
"Your conviction just died, your soul, only for monetary stability…"
– You are overreacting Carlo…
"Thank you… they only wanted to get the rights for L4ura, that doll you gave me with the 8bit screen, that I gave it a background story, and children stories for the hospital recovery room, remember?... well, they like it too much, and want to get some others for their private hospitals, that was all…"
– I remember the doll… kinda forgot where it went after I gave it to you… – Olivia remembers everything vividly, they all knew she had skin and lung issues, but they never saw a severe case of allergy, so they were caught by surprised when she got a bad rash during Lauka's birthday picnic that led her to the hospital, and as they stood there for the whole day, Lauka fooled around with the doll, she uploaded the background to the doll and saw her at work, charming and distracting kids with how afraid she was, even more than them.
"Well, I set her free at the kids' section and they love her, she has the shy demeanor and while hiding, she told stories to not be so scared, and the kids simply adore her, so Surrgate reached out…"
"And now she and them want to make more and sell them by the dozens…"
– Do you realize that it would be of more use that way?...
"… to make money, that is its only goal while it remains at a private hospital, have some self-respect…"
"It is for the children, sick ones, really sick ones, that is what I'm looking at, that is the reward…"
– And to be fair, you have never been there, sicklish and unable to do much inside a hospital; honestly, if she is able to have full creative control over L4ura, then she just got a start at something good… I still remember when I was making BAZ1…
"I give them a year, then they will make you do a new one, more adapted to their tastes, a happy blond girl with pigtails singing country while the kids are barely able to smile… they only want that, to reach the moment were your dolls end up in the trash and they get to talk about how it all started with a scared little doll hiding behind doors and nurses…"
"Hey at least have some faith in my work killjoy… you could have waited for that to happen…"
"Ba1k off… sorry, I had it on…"
"Ludo… thought you had us in mute…"
– Hey man.
"Hey Livvy… no, I had only Carlo on mute… joking man, chill, let her do her… wait… what are you making Liv? How did you get your hands on a salmon?"
"wait what?"
– Yeah, they upgraded my diet… got their hands on my hospital chart and they suggested a better diet, for the time being. – That was a lie, but she had signed a non-disclosure contract.
"So good, over there the food must taste like actual food, and they said an app to smell what I'm smelling was a dumb idea, ha, they thought I was a fool, I bet now everybody would be begging to know how real salmon smells like…"
– Oh yeah, you have no idea, but back to that man child, who sees Lauka as a little defenseless girl, wanna do something, go with her and help her with the contract… while she gets a catalog of other characters ready…
"Fair, send it over, will take me a day or two…"
"Finally, thanks Livvy, it gives me time to give L4ura a crew of scared people, maybe put some esbirros, to hold during hard times… okay I'm out, gonna work on it, bye"
– Call me if you need help… – Olivia offered as she sat down to have her breakfast, and eating while Lauka caught her doing an empty offer, who both knew Olivia didn't have the time for.
"Do you have the time?... don't worry, oh, that reminds me, good video… you were all over the place at some times, but it was a good one… bye."
– Cool, thanks, bye Lau.
"…I'm off too, then, gonna pick some books at home to help L4uka…"
"And then there were two"
– Actually one, have to go do some scouting, or I will be thrown down the nest.
"Hey! wait, give me five, the show starts in seven, did you read the subject of the show?"
– Esm3 did the other day, before sleeping, the last thing I remember was… modeling for you to go nowhere…
"hahaha, that was the title…"
– I'm kidding… after that I read it… one part is true, they still want us to buy for status, telling us how to dress, and try to look, talk, and act, just like them; but honestly without a reason, I have noticed that here… in this place with so many smart and capable people where we all contribute in a way, we feel special, like everybody is supposed to feel… Over there you said that the award doesn't match the effort… you put it like that right? – She put on a questioning face as she took the last bite of her pancakes.
"In a way, yes… it is the new generational flex… they used to call it like that, hahaha… and now, the people who used to made videos about their oh so opulent and interesting life style, still, tell us how to dress, or what to buy… watch the show when you can, I got a video of some of those guys fighting over the exact same shirt, they both 'design' for the same season, it is hilarious"
– I will… and will comment on that too… it is all a smoke show if you ask me, they are desperate and fighting for the scraps.
"ha, thanks… St.V3n was listening the whole time, I will use your words to make a debate… gonna be a good back and forth… my guests are some children of some of those talentless famous guys of old"
– Damn you, just don't quote me… – Olivia saw with a smile how Ludo ended the video call after using the mic to reach the center stage of his radio booth.
"Do you want to see the transmission?"
– No, record it for later, we need to get ready for the day. – Olivia said while enjoying the last bit of the salmon, she still had plenty for the week, but she was already saving food like she used to do at home, where she protected her coffee as gold, or the avocado as a trade for other goods; since her dad sent her all kinds of fruits and vegetables from his farm, she became a supplier amongst her roommates of natural food, and they even managed to plant and get some tomatoes on the rooftop of their apartment.
– Huff, I don't think I can keep eating… the salmon was a bit overcooked; do you have a processing issue? Some lagging perhaps?
"Same resources, no issues one is connected to the server but not yet working with the same updates."
– Oh… right… I kinda don't want to put you through it all… once you are fully connected to the tower, I don't think I will be able to take it back… and I also will need to go over the whole configuration… I will consider it later… now I need to get ready to go out, get the clothes out while I do the dishes and take a bath.
"Understood you still need to check your notifications…"
– Chut… I will. Start displaying, get the screen closer and start displaying them.