Life is full of stories. Or so we think. It’s really just a million unrelated things all happening at once that we boil down into some simplistic narrative to keep ourselves from going crazy. So it really doesn’t matter where we start, as long as the stage is set.
In this particular case, it was 405 years after the Event. Not quite to the half way point, but that was far from people’s minds. Everyone was busy, though in terms of the basics, everything was more than covered. Arlo Benington looked at the latest report on housing. The reflection of his emerald green eyes and short black hair glowed on the monitor’s screen in the bright sunlight. He sighed. His setup was one of the older models, more than functional, but lacking some refinements that showed up in some extreme circumstances. It was more at home in a larger office, away from the windows, but he often needed something more than the standardized tablet. Normally this kind of thing wasn’t done, but there were always exceptions.
Arlo
offhandedly munched on a Nutri-biscuit – it wasn’t the most
exciting food, but it wasn’t unpleasant either, and the various
grains and berries made the job of eating a fairly efficient and
minor distraction. Scrolling through the lists and reports told him
what he already knew – residential buildings were more than
adequate, both in amount and quality. A system had been setup so
that those in the first batches of accommodations could be moved into
the more recent vacant builds. These benefited from more technology
and recovered construction methods, as well as less hurried work.
This had been cycled through twice, and very few of the original
dwellings remained, except as museum examples. It was a similar
story with schools, meeting halls, and other primary function
buildings. Most of those had been updated as the need arose with
temporary structures and alternate locations filling the gap while
the primary buildings was unavailable. To Arlo, it seemed a bit
overkill, but he couldn’t quite find fault with it either. He
realized that not a lot of people were quite as satisfied with his
level of bare essentials, nor did they agree on what he considered
vital. His choice of food and computer system were a microcosm of
his ideals. Simple things could be appreciated on a deep level
without a lot of work, but sometimes a deviation in the other
direction was needed to get the job done properly, and not merely
adequately. After triple checking the reports, he sent them off to
the Building Committee to discuss and file away.
Caius
Dawson sat on the Building Committee and had just received Arlo’s
reports as he arrived at the meeting’s location. Dawson was in a
way the opposite of Bennington – much more social and definitely
enamoured with sampling the variety of living and recreation. After
a time of eating and socializing, short by Dawson’s standards but
long by Bennington’s, the official discussion began. It was
decided that the bulk of the work on primary buildings was done –
and any further improvements were done on a case-by-case basis,
rather than a universal coordinated effort. It wasn’t hard for the
Committee change direction, but it did have a tendency to continue
doing the same thing longer than strictly necessary. People like
Caius were a part of that culture – so convinced they were doing
the best they could, they didn’t think much outside the box. It
annoyed Arlo enough that he kept the whole committee at arm’s
length. Not hostile, but he avoided them, and the open meetings, as
much as possible. That probably delayed the work changing over to a
new focus by at least a few weeks.
Seven months ago, in one of his rare appearances, Arlo made the case for switching the work over to tertiary structures - obscure research, large scale entertainment, museums and centers focused on curiosity learning. The committee had decided it wasn’t quite time yet, but apparently had not forgotten the idea either. The glowing report on the state of the basic construction had finally provided the impetus to switch gears. Caius wanted Arlo to help with some input on the confusion of what would go where. The large, red haired man was difficult to say no to, but Benington was indifferent and had a lot of practice at refusing – and said he would rather spend the time drawing up general blueprints and organizing the groups that would occupy those locations.
In the end, that was what the committee needed. Some placements were made due to unique local resources or geography and that meant the locations of the support structures could also be finalized. Arlo’s blueprints apparently suggested some aesthetics that leaned toward a particular city over another, a meaningless and arbitrary distinction thought Arlo. As well, his work with the proto-groups found certain numbers of people already in one place rather than another – though quite a few people would still need to move. In the end, it wasn’t quite random, but it may as well have been – or so Arlo thought at the time.