4. Sneaking. Listen.

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10.35.406

I was bad.

Don't be surprised, not like I was going to be obedient this trip. I just snuck out without an escort. Back home that wasn't even a thing, but apparently when you're part of Titania society, you must always have an escort.

I didn't learn that until I talked to Georgia and Garrison. Georgia had mentioned this little jazz club that she thought I would like and she said she wanted to go but two women alone wouldn't be proper.

“Proper?” I said.
“Right, proper, you can't be out without an earning escort when you're in high society. It reflects poorly on the head of the household.”
“I never heard of that before. That's...really weird.”

Apparently around here if a person doesn't have the free time to treat his spouse it's a big deal. Or children, or anyone really. It's all a whole head of household thing. You want a job where you're important but you still have time. That explains Garrison's messed up schedule. I never know when he's going to be home. I guess that means he should be able to treat her to a meal every once in a while.

Garrison offered to take us but then he started complaining about jazz. “I would much prefer a classical show, the theramin is much more soothing and I hear blah blah blah blah blah” Yeah I made up the blahs but you see where I'm going with this. He just kept going. And it was all monotone too, like he was complaining but he didn't want to sound like he was complaining. It was weird. Georgia gave a face. Garrison is an only child, and it definitely shows.

This is not the only time he's done this. He tried to explain to me the other day why it was more logical for me to keep my shower soap outside the shower. This went on for 20 minutes. He's one of those guys.

Not someone I want to see a jazz show with.

I looked up the club that Georgia mentioned on the stream. It's open until really late. Alick knows, I'd drag him places until 3 a.m. Oh, I guess you weren't supposed to know that Dad. Oops.

So I decided to go when they were asleep. Garrison goes to bed early and Georgia usually follows soon after. Garrison also gets up early too, so that's the problem. I couldn't stay out too late, but at least I could leave the house early.

I waited a couple of days after I talked to them to do it, and it was totally worth it. First, I made sure to get a fashionable hat to hide my face. Hats aren't that popular here though. I guess when you stay away from the sun all day you don't need a hat. So it's really more like a fashionable brim across your face. You're supposed to style your hair over it. I did something “simple”, and by simple I mean something that took merely an hour and a half. Women here have way too much time on their hands.

Georgia and Garrison didn't notice, and by the time they must've been asleep I snuck out of my room and out of the apartment.

Took the el over to the club. It's literally just called The Club. I guess it was one of the first one's here, built when the company who started Titania was trying to look inviting. So I guess they only needed to call it The Club. It does look a little older inside, some of the walls need to be replaced, the edges are rusting and they have a collection of dents and punctures. The stage is an old-fashioned cabaret thing, but it has a grand piano. I didn't know they had grand pianos out here. It's kind of funny, I know they don't make wooden instruments out here so someone must've shuttled that thing over, possibly over a century ago.

They had some background music, I got myself some weird sounding drink made from some exotic liquor and some exotic juice. I just told the tender to make me something sweet, I was new. He did. It also was kind of strong, so I didn't drink anything else. Not ordering from that tender again, if I go back.

I sat close to the back. All the lighting was dim so no one would recognize me. And then around half an hour after I got in, I hear some dorky guy's voice announce “The sensation across Titania, Erin Kay!” There was some modest applause, and then this tall, slender woman with way too much orange hair on top of her square face came out. She had a simple short tunic and leggings, but they sparkled a bit and she had a little cape on too. I think that's something I forgot to mention, I guess people love capes here. It's like an evening wear must. I don't know why, they don't even have weather. Maybe they like to pretend they'll pump in some wind every once in a while.

This Erin chick could sing though. It's sounds like the old earth jazz singers, and I mean OLD earth jazz singers. The light voice and the high cooing and all that stuff. I never heard it in person before. Everyone back on earth is busy being loud in wide open spaces. I guess when everyone is cramped in together, you don't have to be loud. It's to everyone's benefit, I tell you. I could hear her so well, she had no mic or speakers or anything and she was playing the piano. It was great. I barely remember what she looked like because I closed my eyes to hear her sing, focus. One of those songs is stuck in my head.

I try to leave my past behind
Forget the day I walked away
But the cracks still show
And now I know
I'll be leaking forever

I'll try my best to save the tears
Another dance in the rain
And I'm crumbling
I'm still stumbling
And leaking forever

I think that song was my favorite. They way she sang it, I choked up a bit. I'm not a super emotional person, but she hit me in the ticker.

I got home way before Garrison would wake up. Before I got in I rode the elevator with the neighbor next door. Or one of them. The guy that was arguing. He looked tired Sunken eyes and messed up dark hair. Tall and slouched.

Why's he staying up? Cheating on his wife? I don't know. I'm so bored here that I'm sneaking out of the apartment and making up stories about my neighbors. I think I'm going to see Erin sing again. Got to figure out how. Maybe I can buy some of her music on the stream. I hope so.

Now to find another romance novel. Georgia's watching her vids all today.

Oh! New Year soon! Maybe I should schedule a hair appointment.

VIRGINIA.

3. Bored. Reading.

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HEA 10.29.406

I’m trying to write this but there seems to be a fight next door. I didn’t realize the walls were thin, but Mom always said I was horrible at listening. There is a couple living next door, hetero, and the guy is very upset about something. He’s not speaking loudly but he’s slamming something around. Stomping a little bit. It could be a tantrum, I don’t know. But I didn’t even think about the fact that I lived next to anyone. Back home you have some space and a yard, with a tastefully hidden compost heap so you and your neighbors don’t have to smell like filth. But here everything was pretty isolated until I heard some stuff happening over there. Sounds kind of serious. Maybe not. I don’t know. It’s the most interesting thing that has happened to me today.

Things are horribly boring here. Georgia and I went on another shopping trip, this time to more boutiques on the other side of downtown, a little father away. Not as chic as the place with Hetha, but still lots of shop keepers and workers with ridiculous curl sculptures on top of their heads. So it was trendy.

Georgia wanted to make sure that I had a dress I felt fit me. I got to say, even though she’s helping Mom marry me off, she’s doing it a lot better than Mom did. Georgia is not insisting I’m entirely trendy, she says that at least marry a husband that appreciates your style. That means I’m going to be the exotic beauty with how everyone likes to dress here.

I’ll be introduced to high society on New Year’s Eve, at the annual Entrepreneur Ball. Businessmen hold it so that they can thank government officials, and the rest of the big people. It’s a lot of people with old and new money. And a good number of them are single.

So, Dad, tell Mom I’ll be meeting potential husbands soon. I’m sure she thinks I am going to run off and become a vigilante or something, go to some other colony like Progress Point or some other liberal place with free woman that dance all night and have careers during the day. I’m sure she’d find me and drag me back to civilized society. She doesn’t have to now.

I got another nice dress, but I think I’ll stick to the one I bought before. It’s simple, got colors that look good on me and I don’t need it tailored. And yesterday Georgia and I got jewelery for it. Stellarous. Since it’s not on trend on the planet it’ll enhance the fact that I am an exotic import. Like a coconut or something. I should say a fresh coconut, I don’t think they have anything fresh here.

But other than the shopping I’m bored. I’ve finished three romance novels in a week. I don’t read. Ever. I am kind of surprised that I even thought of it but Georgia can hog the projector for hours either watching vids or bidding on art. I don’t even think she really likes the art I just think she tries to seem cultured.

She’s a little homesick from time to time too. Yesterday she talked about how she missed biting into the apple. They have apple juice and apple treats here but it’s not the same. Fresh fruit has a different smell or texture. I’m sure they have some around here somewhere, how else do they make stuff taste like apples?

I gotta get out of the house. I’ll ask Georgia and Garrison what there is to do tonight. I hope something. Anything. SAVE ME!

VIRGINIA

2. Shopping, Looking

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HEA 10.27.406

I did something I never did on Earth today.

I went to the library, pick up an upload chip and started reading a book.

Believe me it’s some ridiculously trashy romance novel that takes place on Earth right when they started they had this thing they called “internet”. It’s like the stream, except with wires that went everywhere. Anyway, this chick lives in Japan and she’s chatting with this businessman in France she’s never met, and he’s actually going to a business trip in Japan but they keep on missing each other online to set up when to meet and OH STARS IT’S SUSPENSEFUL.

Why am I reading? Georgia does nothing but clean the house and watch vids every day. I think she has a couple of friend visit every once in a while, but she likes to be home. Apparently Garrison’s job involves weird hours. This week he’s been working a lot but some days he is only in his office two hours and then he comes home, and Georgia likes to be ready to pamper him. I haven’t seen much of it. When she started with a head massage technique she learned here I got creeped out. Garrison seemed to really enjoy it and neither one seemed to remember that I was in the same living room, so I rushed over to my room and closed the door and hid. I don’t need to witness foreplay. You guys are probably laughing at this right now but let me tell you Garrison seemed a little too excited about index fingers on his collarbone.

So, Dad, to answer your question, I think Georgia is happy with her hub here.

Georgia did help me find some new dresses yesterday. Went on the el to this boutique that was on 10 minutes away. We could’ve walked there but Georgia insists we’re above that. The el stops at any intersection you need to, if you know which line to take. They’re numbered, and the numbers have color coding too. A red means express, which won’t stop at every intersection, and a yellow is standard. Out of service is blue. We took a red el to the boutique. It’s called Katzy’s or something crazy like that. The outside wall looks like a bubble, with screens displaying the dresses inside on models. The shop had a lot of clothes, but it was super tiny.

There weren’t a lot of people in there so we had this crazy looking chica named Hetha with ridiculous curls in her loud blonde hair. Apparently the big thing to do here is to sculpt your hair into these complicated curls, and that’s what Hetha has done. It’s like a statue of half bubbles arranged as delicately as a mountain range. Did she sleep on them? I don’t know, the curls looked neat but they were jumbled all over the place.

So Hetha decides that my color is green and she gets me this green spotted dress with all this flotsam around my feet to trip around and frills on my shoulder and sheer stuff on my arms and spots that make me look like I’m wearing the skin of a sick leopard. As much as Hetha thought that it looked good, Georgia kindly put it to her that green was not a color I flocked to, saying there was a long family story. She may not know me well, but it’s good to know my sister has my back.

Georgia proceeded to watch Hetha closely as possible. She knows i gravitate toward simplicity, even though it seems on this planet that is not what’s in style. There is extra fabric hanging from everything and patterns that mismatch all over the place and I don’t even know! Dresses are still slinky but they’re slinky with extra garbage attached and I am so afraid I am going to trip over it. Georgia knows because that was the one thing we would both complain about in our vids to each other, and even though she is more in fashion with what’s going on in Titania she definitely doesn’t want to trip. Like our father, we’re clumsy.

Finally Hetha (with a lot of help from Georgia) finds this black and red dress with not much going on in the skirt area but it has this nice sheer overlay, covering my arms and it has some light, sparkly beading that usually isn’t my thing, but I’m realizing most stuff isn’t here in this shop. So Georgia gets it for me and Hetha the entire time is shaking her curls and going “That green would’ve been interstellar on you!”. She’s crazy.

Georgia promises me we’re never going to that boutique again.

We went to another one that had more casual clothes for when you go to the country club. Georgia says she knows women that spend all day there. They say they watch the men play racquet ball and other sports but really they’re drunks. Apparently that is why Georgia spends a lot of time at home, she’s not a drunk. Good to know.

Food out here in the restaurants doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as home. You can tell they faked it to some extent. Earth is able to get a lot of stuff fresh these days, but here on Titania I don’t think they know what a farm looks like. It’s all stuff that’s either grown in a tube or has been freeze dried across space, and that second one is what the rich people eat, so I get to have a lot of freeze dried fruit for dessert. There’s apparently a bunch of other stuff they do as well to get food to taste like something. Georgia says Garrison knows all the techniques but she wouldn’t share them with me. He is a very technical guy, apparently, learns things in every little detail. I guess that’s why he’s so uninteresting, he is too focused on the small stuff.

It was a nice sister’s day out I guess. Georgia talked a lot about herself and how Titania is, but I don’t want to bore you with it. I don’t even remember half of it. The restaurant had fake pictures of the old french rvieria circa 2105 C.E, well before even the H.E.A, as if it’s supposed to be like a window to look out on. But windows change, and this wasn’t, and all I cold think about was how much I thought my window at home was boring when it looked out to the desert with cacti and my neighbors. But there were some animals and people to look at.

Out here, no one misses that.

I didn’t think I would.

Which is why I’m reading this historical book I guess, even with less nature than Earth has now, this Japanese woman can still think under a tree in a park. I got to go across town to see one flower.

I didn’t think I would miss this stuff.

I need to stop ending these things on a bad note. Next time I’m going to do something exciting. I don’t know what, but something. Make suggestions, guys!

VIRGINIA

1. Stopping. New.

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HEA 10.24.406

I guess I settled in.

Should I start from the beginning? Yeah, let’s do that.

I thought flying sucked, but that’s only two hours of cramped space with a stranger. Try 4 weeks in a chemical sleep by yourself. You’ll take no armrests next to the tall guy any day. They didn’t tell me I could have headaches for a week.

So you finally wake up for the last time, you get your bags together and you’re ready to go, and then they totally make you wait for 2 hours while they inspect and disinfect every. single. pod. All 80 of them. They put this powder around everything, so now I go out with my peacock powdered luggage, that is way too heavy for not having really walked in five weeks, and the air tastes like soap and metal. Apparently this is biodegradable and isn’t going to make me sick, but it doesn’t make up for the fact I haven’t showered in over a month. They probably lied. They probably put that powder on everyone to make sure that it doesn’t smell like ass. God, if I smelled as bad as I think I did, I can’t imagine how it smells to go out in the terminal without that powder. Oh wait, I can. I gagged a bit. Don’t imagine that.

You exit one at a time, because a good number of the people suffer from hyper-strain. I don’t know why it’s hyper. Probably something to do with physics or something stupid like that. They send you out one at a time in the hopes people don’t topple over each other, and that way it’s easy to figure out who’s going to take an hour to walk. Thank stars I could walk. I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to, so I would be a bumbling debutante. My mom had me wear this really nice dress with sheer layers on the trip, just in case I met some rich guy right at the terminal. I think when she looked around the terminal back at Earth she realized it was nothing but laborers and young graduates. Because she thought I would get engaged right away I got this powder streaking over my black and red dress with the sheer thingy. Mom says it looks good on me, but it didn’t anymore.

Georgia barely recognized me. Last time she saw me I didn’t even have tits, and I was half a foot shorter. Now I have heels and a fancy dress, blearily stumbling with a ton of luggage that looks like monsters eyes and all of it and me are covered in this forsaken powder. And she just breaks out laughing. She’s practically tearing up with how hilarious I look. I didn’t even realize it until shuttle back because I was on auto pilot. She sat across from me in the shuttle, and I finally wised up enough to ask why she was crying. She just said “The image of it all. What a reunion.” She started laughing again.

Garrison looks like what aliens would draw if they needed a stereotypical human male to describe us. If we ever do find other life out there I’ll point them his way. He’s medium; his build, coloring, height, even the tone of his voice is just average. I have never met someone who I would never be able to pick out of a crowd. It’s almost eerie to look at him. He doesn’t talk much either. He gave a bow and said “pleasure to meet you” and that was it. I don’t think he’s said a word to me since.

Georgia and Garrison kept their distance from me. They got really dressed up. Or I think they did, maybe they dress in fancy clothes all the time. I guess purple and green are fashionable on Titatnia because that’s what Georgia was wearing, with her hair pinned close to her face and her bracelets jingling along. Garrison had a nice suit on in an olive color. It looked like a bog puked him out. How’s he supposed to know though? He’s never seen a bog. He’s never seen nature.

I already miss tress. Every walkway here has high ceilings and bright lights and light colors. It’s not sterile white like some of the other colonies I’ve seen through vids. They have pale blues and pinks and purples as you walk along. There’s no graffiti. The walls are asking for something more but they just sit there, happy to be one color.

We weren’t on the walkways for long. Georgia and Garrison led me, the powdery embarrassment, to the El station. The cars go around above most of the colony, hence, “el” or elevated train. How original. Half the time you’re on the edge and you get a view of the planet outside. It’s totally desolate out there. Golden craters and recycling depots left outside civilization. In space no one can smell your funky trash, so there is sits. A faint atmosphere exist so that you an have a yellow tinge to the sky above. Apparently they thought there was enough H20 to help terraform this place years ago. That’s what Georgia told me. Who thought water was up in that sky? Especially enough to harness for people? You can still see every star when the sun is out.

Oh yeah, looking into the sun on earth is painful, but here it’ll make you puke. I almost did. The shades they put on the El help enough to give you time to turn your head if the sun is up. It’s tiny but it will kick your head out of your eyeballs if you try to look at it. Apparently it keeps the colony warm enough without any extra man-made heaters, considering what the biodome is made out of. Biodome is a weird name too, considering a lot of this isn’t strictly circular. It’s more triangular. Biotriad, however, is not as easy to say, so biodome it is.

The ride to Georgia’s neigborhood was only 30 minutes, so I got there fast. I was still carrying my own luggage when we walked to her building and took the lift up to the 31st floor, only 3 floors from the top. Apparently that means something. They have one of the two flats with a bay window out there. When I first walked in I’m introduced to all this earth art Geogia collects. It costs a fortune out here and Garrison is happy to buy her all of it. But the living room is kind of small. It has just enough space for a couch, a love seat, and a coffee table. Not much else going on but the view, and of course the projector. they have a screen that drops down from the ceiling to project what’s on the net to watch. I guess Georgia can keep up with all her Bahn Estrada vids from years ago. Not like any of it is new.

My room is skinny. It feels like a long closet. The sheets are nice, but Georgia forced me to change in the bathroom before I got powder on anything. As soon as I did I went to the bed and slept like death. When I woke up breakfast was ready the next morning. Georgia had bots doing it for her. It was food, I guess. Still good. My eggs were a little too runny. They’re not really eggs anyway. Those you save for baking here. On Titania there’s a lot of synthetic food that looks and tastes pretty legit. The waffles were not so bad.

By the time you guys see this thing, I think I’ll been here a week. Don’t matter, I’ll definitely keep you updated. Let me know how life is back on Earth. Especially the weather. I’m thinking I’m going to miss seeing different weather out my window. It helped paint the day. Each one unique. Like a cloud or a snowflake.

Didn’t mean to get into preschool territory there. Anyway, when something exciting happens I’ll let you know. Let’s see if I can find me a rich husband, preferably one who knows how to dance.

VIRGINA

Floating, Speeding

[The netbook is in, so I am delivering what I promised. Enjoy the beginning of the Titania Chronicle.  If you want to reply to this entry in character/universe, feel free to do so with IC in parentheses in the beginning.]

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HEA 10.12.406
I'm awake again, and I'm typing this up not sure when it will get to you all, but I figured I should make a first post for when I out in the middle of space.

They're right, your bones ache. I think Georgia told me that in her vid. No amount of stretching makes me feel better.

These little pods are a joke. They keep you in here, so you can't see anyone else the entire time. Some liability thing. But then they give you enough space to walk about when you're not strapped into your awkward bed thingy. It's the weirdest thing. It's like there's a bed to the wall and nothing else. My only company is my luggage.

By the way, I need to thank my mom for giving me this ridiculous peacock pattern on my suitcase. I wake up every week in a haze and and spook myself because I think some monster is across from me.

Dad, you're reading this right? Thank Mom for me, as long as she doesn't find out about this thing.

Same for the rest of you. I only wanted a few of you to read this. I'm serious, Alick, not a word to anyone else. Not your girlfriend of the week.  Not even your sister, Lexia.  I know she won't tell anyone.  But if I find out across galaxies that she knows, you will  lose access to this thing.  This is not something I want to share with everyone.  Just some people.  Just someone.

I don't want everyone back home to know my new debutante life. It's embarrassing enough that you're parents raise you only to ship you away so that they never see you again. Whoever thought of that? Mom cried and everything, but she never said she would miss me. I don't think she will.  Don't argue, Dad.

There's no stars out here. Not many. It's kind of empty.

So I'm going to meet Georgia and Garrisson in two more weeks. Or one. I think this is my third time out of stasis.

How should I take it that I'm going the farthest suggested to go in stasis because my mom insisted? She just wants to marry me off. Like Georgia. Except I think Georgia wanted to.

It's been six years. And we were really good at keeping apart. Send a vid, catch up on petty stuff, and move on. I don't know if I can live with her again. And I barely know Garrison. He's apparently some hot shot for… something that makes money. I'm not sure what. Apparently he makes a lot of money, they have a 2 story loft so he must know what he's doing.

There's no open space where I'm going.  No yard.  No sky.  No plants I can watch grow.  No wild pigeons or squirrels to see eat my trash.  And there's no space whatsoever.  The room I'm getting is smaller than the one I'm leaving, and it's considered luxurious.  What scam is that?  Is my stuff going to fit?  Is Georgia even got a closet for me?  Dammit, now I'm worrying.  Maybe I will clean this up before I post it.

But then you guys would get mad at me.  You know how I think.  Dad would call me out in a minute.

There's the blue warning light. I got 15 minutes. A couple more naps and then I'm done and on Titania. I'm lucky I had enough brain power to type this.

Wish me pleasant dreams. And no more peacock luggage frights.

VIRGINIA