his mates are on top of everything.’
‘What is it then?’
‘I’m thinking about Glitter.’
‘Oh yes?’ Angel stood up straight.
‘It doesn’t matter how good her party is, she has lost.’
‘Really?’
‘I think so. Fashion trends are subtle and mysterious phenomena, but however they work, they have something to do with energy, creativity, and critique. Look what’s happening now. We haven’t got the best, most established, scripters. But the next generation is with us, entirely with us, and people can sense it. Our party is going to be the one to be seen at. Whether merited or not, we are fashionable.’
Angel nodded. ‘Yes, we’ve done it, got over the threshold.’
‘I feel sorry for Glitter.’
‘I don’t,’ replied Angel promptly.
‘It might cheer her up to think that whatever happens, she deserves credit for having stimulated two great parties.’
‘I doubt it will.’
‘Angel, you are so severe.’
‘And you, EV, are such a softy.’ She came over to him and ran her hands through his curly phosphorescent hair (recently redesigned by Vivid Calibration). ‘But that’s why I love you.’
There were literally hundreds of casts made about the battle of the parties. Very many of them were partisan and unfair, on both sides. Melting Song probably represented the balance of opinion in his cast. This was his conclusion:
Where could you hear the best music? The Pleasuredome. Where could you see the most wonderful clothing designs? The Pleasuredome. Where could you immerse your body in the most extraordinary sensations? The Pleasuredome. Which was the better party? The Waterfall.
A party is more than the setting; it is, above all, the people. Those at the Pleasuredome were unconsciously measuring each other and the value of their entertainment. It was hard for them to let go. Those at the Waterfall were having fun. For me, the abiding memory of the waterfall was not the dancing and organised festivities. It was the fact that hardly anyone used the teleports to go from top to bottom. Instead they flung themselves over the lip of the dance floor. They fell in their droves, like beautiful laughing lemmings. Flying, spinning, gliding, screaming, showing off. Up and down they went, having fun. Fun. Good times. Hedonism.
What the battle of the parties proves is that all this comes better without kudos.
And that conclusion, drawn by the inhabitants of the Metaverse (most of whom had a look at both parties), spelt the end of kudos. Of course you can still access the kudos chart, but there is hardly any activity on it. Glitter is there at the top of course, along with, perhaps, a hundred others who regularly make kudos transactions. But everyone else has more or less forgotten the whole thing. It is rather like an old human illness, which once filled the human body with fever, but having been mastered, survives in a harmless form. Just one or two scars remain and they in the form of unpleasant memories. Those who know him well, very rarely talk about the sinking ship party with Eternal Voyager.
If you enjoyed this book, you might like other fiction by Conor Kostick
The other short books in the Eternal Voyager series are:
Aliens
Revenge Upon the Vampyres
Dancers Beyond the Whorl of Time
The Siege of Mettleburg
The Murder Mystery
Conor is the author of the award-winning Avatar Chronicles:
Epic
Saga
Edda
He has written a stand-alone book where Buddhism meets quantum physics:
Move
For younger readers (8 – 10), two, paired, books illustrated by J. O’Callaghan:
The Book of Wishes
The Book of Curses
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