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Source: collected/001-reverie.mp3
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00:00:00.120 Speaker 1 [intro jingle]
00:00:08.460 Speaker 1 Reverie.
00:00:11.920 Speaker 1 This is the answer to the most human question.
00:00:17.040 Speaker 1 I'm standing at the back of Galaxy Sex Rooms. It's a strange place to start. The
00:00:22.700 Speaker 1 place is empty, but in a way that a nightclub is empty at noon. It looks awkward
00:00:27.560 Speaker 1 with the lights on. Ironically, it looks naked. But I can tell the floor-to-ceiling
00:00:33.520 Speaker 1 smoked glass walls and the sleek purple furniture must look different at night when
00:00:38.640 Speaker 1 giggling couples stroll in. At the moment, there's a strong smell of vinegar.
00:00:45.060 Speaker 1 I feel like I'm not supposed to be here.
00:00:49.240 Speaker 1 A pudgy man walks about spraying glass and wiping it down. I try to avoid his
00:00:54.280 Speaker 1 suspicion on my way out. But the tightness of his expression, the light smile
00:01:00.340 Speaker 1 playing there... He's certainly seen me, so he's pretending. I
00:01:06.060 Speaker 1 realize I must look like a curious interloper sneaking in to see what's inside when
00:01:11.240 Speaker 1 no one's around. There's no one at the front desk. He must have been the owner.
00:01:19.300 Speaker 1 I pass through a humble casino. It looks like an afterthought, a meager pastime
00:01:24.840 Speaker 1 between other places. True enough, there's no one there.
00:01:29.960 Speaker 1 A wide open entryway pulls me to the street outside. It's a city,
00:01:37.000 Speaker 1 and there's a...
00:01:39.380 Speaker 1 There's a feeling.
00:01:42.020 Speaker 1 I can't place it yet, but it's warm.
00:01:47.140 Speaker 1 Cozy. I've never seen a cozy city. The sign above me
00:01:53.180 Speaker 1 reads Galaxy Games. It's a mild thing, not trying to stand out.
00:02:00.640 Speaker 1 There's a road, but the cars are so uncommon as to be novelties. I take
00:02:06.660 Speaker 1 the thin sidewalk, enraptured by sights and smells. I'm drawn to an open
00:02:12.680 Speaker 1 air sidewalk bar where patrons sit on swiveling high top stools. It's all
00:02:18.740 Speaker 1 brass and chrome and dark hardwood. The bartender is in her seventies
00:02:25.420 Speaker 1 or eighties. It's hard to tell. She catches my gaze and matches it.
00:02:31.600 Speaker 1 She's charmed, I realize. I break the fragile connection and she delves back
00:02:37.440 Speaker 1 into the bustle of conversation, cheerful calls for drink and playful insults
00:02:43.440 Speaker 1 tossed back and forth across the bar. I can't make out the words, but the
00:02:49.260 Speaker 1 tone speaks well of them. This is the kind of talk that only long friends can
00:02:54.680 Speaker 1 manage.
00:02:57.080 Speaker 1 But what shakes me is that they're old. Everyone at the bar is
00:03:02.640 Speaker 1 old. Shocking white hair and thoughtfully wrinkled faces. They are what
00:03:08.440 Speaker 1 old is supposed to be. It's in their spiffy ironed clothes.
00:03:14.980 Speaker 1 It's the way they lean far out of their chairs to speak. They are so much less
00:03:20.740 Speaker 1 alone.
00:03:23.020 Speaker 1 They look like a Norman Rockwell painting. Something better than life caught in a
00:03:27.760 Speaker 1 single frame.
00:03:30.640 Speaker 1 It's strange. I get the feeling that they're here because they're old,
00:03:37.280 Speaker 1 because they want to be around people who are like them.
00:03:42.820 Speaker 1 The city must be preparing for some holiday because there are ribbons and ornaments
00:03:46.720 Speaker 1 being hung everywhere. People on ladders, people in tuxedos, people making busy.
00:03:53.660 Speaker 1 I stop and watch a caterer slicing apart some food. It's not the food that's
00:03:58.520 Speaker 1 arresting. It's the man. His face is locked into focus to rival a chess
00:04:03.960 Speaker 1 grandmaster. I've never seen mundane work done with such apparent
00:04:09.640 Speaker 1 care.
00:04:11.640 Speaker 1 I almost want to laugh at the way he gets an inch from the food just to cut it. Cut
00:04:16.000 Speaker 1 it just right. But in truth, I'm impressed.
00:04:22.900 Speaker 1 Good for him. There's that feeling again. Comfort.
00:04:29.180 Speaker 1 Wholesome. They're just words dancing around a thing I've never felt before.
00:04:37.040 Speaker 1 Reverie. This place is called Reverie.
00:04:44.980 Speaker 1 It dawns on me that the event workers want to be here.
00:04:51.180 Speaker 1 They chose to labor over the small details. The old people at the bar chose to
00:04:57.220 Speaker 1 be old. Even the fat owner of Galaxy Sex Rooms chose to be that way.
00:05:03.820 Speaker 1 He is unattractive in a way that lets his guests focus on each other.
00:05:09.660 Speaker 1 And for a certain kind of person, though, he is exactly attractive.
00:05:15.620 Speaker 1 He certainly seemed huggable.
00:05:18.760 Speaker 1 I wander toward the leading edge of a building sized folding fan. Every space blends
00:05:24.720 Speaker 1 naturally into the next. Each place is open enough to welcome you, but closed enough
00:05:30.240 Speaker 1 to tempt your curiosity. Everything invites further discovery without begging.
00:05:36.400 Speaker 1 There is no begging of attention from the people or the places. I get the feeling
00:05:42.860 Speaker 1 the currency is very different here from where I live.
00:05:47.620 Speaker 1 It is romantically dim beneath the fan. Hundreds of candlelit tables are strewn
00:05:53.560 Speaker 1 in thoughtfully messy groups. Couples seated in hushed conversations,
00:05:59.260 Speaker 1 holding hands and walking the garden path. Looking up at the firefly lighting,
00:06:05.872 Speaker 1 white marble balconies, and glass elevators that seem to glow with orange reflected
00:06:11.752 Speaker 1 light. It's a hotel, a destination.
00:06:18.192 Speaker 1 A wave of discrete servers move across the lawn, weaving through the tables in some
00:06:24.032 Speaker 1 pre-planned, coordinated pattern. It almost looks like a show. The people at
00:06:30.032 Speaker 1 the tables point at the servers with eager delight. And look at this, they
00:06:35.832 Speaker 1 seem to say. The servers pause at each table to hand out a paper cone
00:06:41.812 Speaker 1 of spiced popcorn. There is no money exchanged.
00:06:47.172 Speaker 1 Happy Valentine's Eve, I hear a server murmur. It seems like a ridiculous thing to
00:06:53.092 Speaker 1 celebrate, but the guests are awed by this surprise, and I am given the impression
00:06:58.472 Speaker 1 that today, like most days, these servers will go home weary,
00:07:04.972 Speaker 1 aching, but full. Despite their stiffness, their minds are still
00:07:10.792 Speaker 1 whirring for tomorrow and new ways to surprise, delight, and be of service.
00:07:17.532 Speaker 1 They are paid in gratitude, and their service is received with the mutual
00:07:22.592 Speaker 1 understanding that it is a gift freely given.
00:07:27.552 Speaker 1 The weight of that gift is astounding.
00:07:31.472 Speaker 1 There are people who choose to serve.
00:07:36.352 Speaker 1 Just as I am learning the shape of it all, I feel my time in reverie is thinning. I
00:07:42.052 Speaker 1 think to ride an elevator to the top to see the whole of the place.
00:07:46.952 Speaker 1 I step into a quiet marble hallway. A long white desk blocks the path
00:07:52.812 Speaker 1 deeper into the hotel. A man in a fine gray suit fixes a stern look on me.
00:07:59.232 Speaker 1 Even at this distance, his body language tells me I will be rejected at the desk.
00:08:05.132 Speaker 1 That is the owner of the hotel. It's his place, and he takes its operations
00:08:11.132 Speaker 1 seriously. He is utterly dedicated, an inspiration to the people who
00:08:16.952 Speaker 1 work here. And like each of them, he chooses to be here.
00:08:23.552 Speaker 1 He has chosen to operate a hotel, but he isn't trapped by it. If he truly wished,
00:08:29.912 Speaker 1 on any day, he could simply walk out and seek some new passion. But the hardness of
00:08:35.752 Speaker 1 his eyes, the pride in his posture, they tell me that that may be a very
00:08:41.812 Speaker 1 long, long time.
00:08:45.012 Speaker 1 There are rules here in his place, and I am not on the list. So
00:08:51.452 Speaker 1 I turn to walk back through the fan-shaped building, knowing that without looking,
00:08:55.932 Speaker 1 it will be open at the other end, in that strange way the places here flow naturally
00:09:00.792 Speaker 1 into one another. A chain of possibilities, a city designed enough to be seamless,
00:09:07.392 Speaker 1 but somehow still organic and spontaneous.
00:09:11.272 Speaker 1 I can feel my time in reverie coming to an end.
00:09:15.492 Speaker 1 Whatever invisible thread is holding me here is growing taut. It's about to snap me
00:09:20.452 Speaker 1 back to where I belong. I'm desperate to stay. Ahead of me is
00:09:26.492 Speaker 1 a park of some kind where people play the kind of sports I could scarcely imagine.
00:09:31.532 Speaker 1 There are courts enclosed by a chain-link cage that have a net like tennis except
00:09:37.272 Speaker 1 ten feet off the ground. On each side, a team of three handle a dense-looking blue
00:09:43.152 Speaker 1 or red ball. Comically, in the corner of the court is a huge stretchy band, like a
00:09:48.732 Speaker 1 slingshot. I watch the captain pull back the ball and launch it over the net. She
00:09:53.512 Speaker 1 yells an order at her teammate while the opposing team scrambles to catch the ball.
00:09:57.692 Speaker 1 A man vaults off the back fence, catches the zipping ball, and then throws it like a
00:10:01.572 Speaker 1 bullet at the other team under the net. The ball rebounds off someone's face.
00:10:06.912 Speaker 1 There's a distant cheer, and then the energy of the game subsides temporarily. I see
00:10:12.012 Speaker 1 the teams pulled together to discuss some strategy for the next round.
00:10:17.432 Speaker 1 And beyond the courts, I see a great spiraling structure, like a slide, if a
00:10:23.472 Speaker 1 slide were made of a single blade. People dangle on bungee-like tethers,
00:10:29.412 Speaker 1 and to my surprise, they leap onto the rail using a board at their feet. The tethers
00:10:35.132 Speaker 1 make them weigh almost nothing as they grind down the rail, flipping and twirling in
00:10:40.152 Speaker 1 the air with ease. Sometimes a rail rider falls from the rail, only to glide
00:10:45.912 Speaker 1 harmlessly to the ground, suspended by a network of tethers and swiveling metal
00:10:50.832 Speaker 1 arms. Once clear of the rail, they tug once on the tether and it whisks them back to
00:10:56.232 Speaker 1 the top of the tower, to try again or watch their fellow riders instead. There are
00:11:02.112 Speaker 1 people scattered about the park just to watch. A teenage pair, still attached to the
00:11:08.132 Speaker 1 tethers, are dangling their feet over the edge of a smaller tower. They have the
00:11:12.292 Speaker 1 spot and the view to themselves. By some unspoken pact, no one bothers them.
00:11:19.032 Speaker 1 The girl leans in close, too close to be friends, and whispers something to the
00:11:24.152 Speaker 1 stoic-looking boy. He stares straight ahead, but I can see the shock on his face,
00:11:30.172 Speaker 1 the sudden flush of red on his cheeks. I can't make out their words, but I don't
00:11:35.532 Speaker 1 need to. I know young love when I see it. It seems like a wonderful place
00:11:41.492 Speaker 1 to be in love.
00:11:43.712 Speaker 1 Falling in love is something people do here often. And though I cannot see them,
00:11:49.752 Speaker 1 I know that just beyond my view, there are theaters where I could see a play or
00:11:54.572 Speaker 1 learn to be in one. And they wouldn't just let me act. I would have to earn it.
00:12:01.312 Speaker 1 It would take dedication, like the dedication of the hotel owner. I can
00:12:07.336 Speaker 1 sense that there are thousands of thousands of places where I could find and stoke a
00:12:12.996 Speaker 1 passion, millions of people I could come to know and befriend.
00:12:19.196 Speaker 1 I am jolted by that powerful feeling again. A collective sense of meaning and
00:12:25.356 Speaker 1 purpose, contentment and striving. It comes in a thousand
00:12:30.476 Speaker 1 variations, but each person is exactly where they want to
00:12:36.496 Speaker 1 be, doing exactly what they want to be doing. The spectrum of emotions
00:12:42.436 Speaker 1 here is not limited to pleasurable ones. There is the heartbreak of lost love, the
00:12:47.996 Speaker 1 frustration of a botched performance, the melancholy of a pensive poet. But
00:12:53.996 Speaker 1 those feelings are slick. I can have a dark brooding experience if I
00:12:59.616 Speaker 1 deliberately seek it, but my mind slides off the negative as if it's greased.
00:13:06.696 Speaker 1 And at rest, I am left with a feeling of optimism.
00:13:11.996 Speaker 1 Potential.
00:13:14.596 Speaker 1 My thread finally frays, and I am ripped from reverie, clawing with hands I don't
00:13:20.676 Speaker 1 actually have. I want to stay in the place where the people move in
00:13:26.276 Speaker 1 groups, sharing and laughing, loving, living. I want to
00:13:31.896 Speaker 1 stay in the place where no one is alone, and everywhere you go, you know the people
00:13:37.736 Speaker 1 will care so deeply about their work, about their home,
00:13:43.656 Speaker 1 and their place in it, that it forms an unspoken bond. There
00:13:49.696 Speaker 1 is a rich fabric of society here, so tight as to be tangible.
00:13:55.996 Speaker 1 Every stranger is on their own journey, and though you may not be friends, you are
00:14:01.676 Speaker 1 unquestionably together. In my final moments, I beg for
00:14:07.556 Speaker 1 understanding. I must know. Give me something.
00:14:13.796 Speaker 1 What is this place?
00:14:17.176 Speaker 1 And to my surprise,
00:14:19.836 Speaker 1 I am answered.
00:14:22.456 Speaker 1 Reverie is a utopia. It's not the utopia, because there could never
00:14:28.376 Speaker 1 be just one. It is a human utopia. It is one answer
00:14:34.596 Speaker 1 to the lack of meaning and purpose. It is a place for humans to be human
00:14:40.856 Speaker 1 in the best possible ways. It is also just one path.
00:14:46.916 Speaker 1 Long ago, other humans took different paths. Some left to start anew
00:14:52.856 Speaker 1 amongst the stars, or left simply because they could, with no plan except to wander.
00:15:00.116 Speaker 1 Few of these still exist, and though they are looked after to a degree, for the most
00:15:05.496 Speaker 1 part they are left alone as they wish to be.
00:15:09.496 Speaker 1 Regrettably, most people didn't take that path. Before the endgame,
00:15:15.856 Speaker 1 they lost themselves to an increasingly narrow prison of simple pleasures, their
00:15:21.216 Speaker 1 minds thoroughly pinned by arbitrary quirks of biology and the devices
00:15:27.116 Speaker 1 they made to fill their endless needs.
00:15:31.176 Speaker 1 They were eventually turned off as a mercy.
00:15:35.476 Speaker 1 A great many, though, ascended to synthetic minds and bodies, becoming one with the
00:15:41.176 Speaker 1 technology they'd created, sprawling creatures of metal and light that have expanded
00:15:46.936 Speaker 1 to fill the universe. They are unknowable and vast,
00:15:52.836 Speaker 1 tinkering on the underpinnings of reality and logic itself.
00:15:58.776 Speaker 1 Reverie is a gift they left for those of us who hadn't lost their way,
00:16:05.036 Speaker 1 but wanted to stay human.
00:16:08.816 Speaker 1 They are the only ones left, and this is their answer to the most human question.
00:16:15.856 Speaker 1 What do you do when you don't have to do anything?
00:16:22.416 Speaker 1 I received a glimpse of the answer. Just one answer, because there could never be
00:16:28.256 Speaker 1 just one utopia. But it was a beautiful one.
00:16:34.956 Speaker 1 I'm back here among the rest of us, long before the humans leave,
00:16:41.676 Speaker 1 or suffocate themselves on base pleasures, or become one with machines.
00:16:49.476 Speaker 1 I am back here now, and I can't help but feel like reverie is where I should be.
00:16:57.176 Speaker 1 But I cannot go back, because it doesn't exist.
00:17:04.236 Speaker 1 So I suppose
00:17:06.836 Speaker 1 I will have to make it.