DAY 37, REACTIONS, book 4, building

The next morning, Dennie (security) read aloud:  ‘“Queen blackmailed?”’ Chuckling, he looked up from a press folder, some hundred and fifty of which had been waiting for the Campaigns & Negotiations Team. ‘I’ve got: “Queen courageous,”’ Skye (care) said. Frowning Alice read: ‘It says here: “Therapists demand access to queen to assess her sanity.” ‘Ouch, that doesn’t sound good,’ Emine (lawyer) remarked. ‘Is there anything that’s not about the queen?’ ‘Yes, each folder has a subject, for example: international reactions,’ Andy (campaigns simulations) replied, lifting his folder and pointing to the label on the front cover. ‘There are some with outer space theories,’ Dennie commented. ‘Like this here: Clone army poses as scientists in harmless looking town project.’ Emine rolled her eyes, went back to the other conference table and sorted the folder into heaps until she let out a whistle. The others looked up. ‘Reactions relating to laws,’ Emine said, a happy smile on her face as she opened the folder. Some six hours later, everyone felt drained after reading all the wild speculations, accusations and assumptions the press and social media had been throwing around. To be fair, a few journalists had published thorough analyses of the town ideas. Interestingly there was no mainstream line of attack or approval. Some groups celebrated the end of the monarchy. The next had a mind to replace their rebellious queen and others insisted that the queen’s involvement was a bold, outrageous or unimaginative lie. The next group yelled: You can’t do this! Change is impossible! The world is the way it is! To which Alice reacted with a big sigh: ‘The old songs over and over again. It can’t be done. La, la, la. It can’t be done. La, la, la. Honestly, it’s time for a new song.’ ‘A lot of new songs!’ Skye (care) said. ‘Including songs about people who always have an explanation of why things are the way they are. People who insist that nothing can ever be changed.’ ‘And about those who always know better,’ Rohana added. Dennie (security) grinned. ‘La, la, la, let me tell you about the big bad guys who want the world destroyed.’ Alice chuckled. ‘La, la, la, nothing we can do. It’s all so la, li, do, can’t do.’ Skye tapped with her foot: ‘La, la, la, li, lo, do, nothing we can do — UNTIL WE CAN!’ The team laughed. After some more song snippets along the lines of how much humans like to explain all the things that can’t be changed, and some other songs about breaking the cycles of can’t be done by rising to It can be done, the team nudged itself back to sifting through the reactions. Some papers wrote exclusively about Tom quitting the town project, a project his money and connections got started last year. These papers ridiculed Tom because Tom couldn’t quit the project legally so long as his wife, Fran, stayed. Why? Because at the beginning of the town project, Fran had been critical of Alice and the project and insisted on a contract which would give her a veto on all the couple’s decisions regarding the project. Now, Fran used this veto to stop Tom from gutting the project. Others commentators picked Jack as hero or traitor, depending on who posted the comment. The town project’s conditions for building the town also drew ridicule with statements like: Nice try! or Don’t we all want autonomy? And then there were the different interest groups which either called for cooperation (few) or an immediate shutdown of the project (many), among those were groups business people, politicians and activists. Several groups criticised the project for planning to destroy wild land. ‘If you want to fix towns, fix existing towns!’ they wrote. The big question for the Campaigns & Negotiations Team was: How to respond to any or all of those comments? ‘Should we just ignore them?’ Alice wondered aloud. Several people shook their heads, and Emine said: ‘We can’t afford bad publicity. To win our case we have to fight. And we need to give the public a way to find out what is real and what isn’t.’ Navarro agreed. ‘We need to make it possible for people to hear and evaluate our arguments.’ Emine nodded. ‘I suggest we list each negative headline on the Hub Campaign Square and fact-check it. Ripples news can pick up issues for more detailed responses. Plus, we can use our responses to expose the stupidity of fake news, and the warping of reality by dramatising and twisting facts. And we can expose the motives behind those stories, profit, and offer incentives to stop trashing everything that might be fun to trash (restored, thriving planet & communities). At best we manage to inspire writers and readers to say: Fucking hell! Our planet is in a mess. Maybe playtime is really over, and we should do our bit for humanity and the planet, and not be a freaking pest.’ Alice sighed. ‘You sure know how to phrase it to win me.’ Later that day, Robin was the first to call  for a sanity check when the team got lost in a sea of campaign ideas. After a break and another discussion, the team decided to do only seven campaigns. Campaign one: Longevity, asking what it takes to live a long and healthy life. Campaign two: Your Powers, discovering and testing our individual powers. Campaign three: Narratives, exploring what narratives are, what they do, testing them for usefulness and replacing those which don’t serve us. Campaign four: True Power is in Creation, debunking the myths of dominance and competition. Campaign five: Connections, highlighting connections lost, and ways to reconnect to ourselves, each other and the planet. Campaign six: Benefits of Empowerment, asking what we forwent because we didn’t empower, and what we can win by empowering each other. And the final campaign, campaign seven: Press Pause, an invitation to press pause on what we usually do so that we can focus on the issues we as humanity are overdue to address. ‘Why these campaigns?’ Skye challenged with a smile. ‘I mean, someone is bound to ask. We’d better have an answer.’ Isabel nodded. ‘Because these campaigns mirror what we want to attempt in our town experiment: connections, empowerment, healthy, healing environments, narratives which allow us and the planet to thrive. In our town we want to find practical solutions for the mess we and our planet are in.’ Not much later, Hachiro and Jane arrived with their teams for Style Time and tried out new outfits, hairstyles and make-up with the Campaigns & Negotiations Team. It was after eight in the evening when Alice got a call from Any, head of the security company THE. Any had an old acquaintance on the secure line: Ron, an attractive business consultant Alice had met at the project’s conference last year. Ron was a member of the Illustrious Circle. ‘Alice Adler. You look stunning!’ Alice laughed. ‘I had forgotten just how charming you are, Ron.’ Ron chuckled. ‘Please, tell me, I charmed you, at least, a little, last year.’ Alice smiled. ‘Honestly, I was mostly perplexed by the charm offences. Not just yours but also at the other meetings. Anyway, I am curious: What brings you to my screen?’ ‘Can you put in a word for me with THE? They won’t let me play any more.’ Alice chuckled. ‘Nothing I can do.’ ‘Hm. Were you very shocked when you found me on THE’s list of miscreants?’ Alice shook her head. ‘Can’t say I was. There is a degree of perfection to your charm that must be ideal in the circus of global schemers.’ Ron grimaced, charmingly. ‘Degree of perfection, eh?’ Alice smiled and returned: ‘It’s good to see that you are charmable, too.’ ‘I wouldn’t call us even, though.’ Alice laughed. ‘Not even close. You’re a much more sophisticated charmer than I am.’ ‘Oh, Alice Adler, your words are like honey for my tortured soul. You know, I might be able to help you with your aspirations to conquer the hearts and souls of the British Empire.’ Alice laughed. ‘Really?’ ‘Oh, yes!’ ‘I’m listening.’ ‘Well, you could ignite a war between corporations and another between countries. All you have to do is convince a few of them to become your allies.’ ‘I don’t do wars. But I am curious. How would you turn them against each other?’ ‘Ah, that’s easy. No big player or government can be seen as backwards, as speculating profiteers, as destroying the planet or as exploiters of people and resources, though most players do and are just that.’ ‘So, the moment a big player became the town project’s ally and reshaped themselves into a holistically responsible corporation or government, the other corporations or governments would attack the deserter. Or they would panic and join the race to become the most responsible, restorative and empowering corporation or government? Can’t quite see that happen. Or did you have bribery in mind? Threaten to expose all their broken promises, lies and damage inflicted if they don’t put in a word for our town?’ ‘Oh, Alice Adler. You warm my heart. I wish I could claim I was your teacher. You see, I was as powerful as I was because I only cared for the game, the game that required me to stay at the top, no matter which views were presently en vogue or even woke. You and your bloody THE were the first to beat me. But despite everything that that has cost me, I can’t help smiling and applauding you. Special credits for the holistically responsible. And yes, you can play them in all sorts of ways. They like to play. They like to feel clever and special. They love every opportunity to outsmart someone they don’t like. They love thumbing their chests. They even like the idea of aiding you just to upset or confuse a competitor.’ Alice chuckled. ‘Bloody hell. Tell me, is any one of them aware that our planet and a majority of the people on our planet are in serious trouble, and we don’t have time for games?’ Ron smiled sweetly and shook his head. ‘I always knew that my actions meant misery for billions of people. But I didn’t care. Those billions are somewhere else. Not my problem. Not part of the game. I still don’t care. I only care for the game. But your project is so impossible to a mind like mine that I am a big fan.’ ‘You’re that bored?’ ‘You have no idea! THE said I could open a small grocery. A grocery! Small!’ Alice chuckled. ‘Out of curiosity: Would you say that your charm gave you too much leeway?’ Ron raised his eyebrows. ‘You mean, did my charm spoil me?’ ‘Yes. Did others let you get away with too much?’ Ron squinted his eyes. ‘When did you turn therapist? And no, I am many things, but I’m not going to blame my actions on others. My actions are all me.’ ‘Hm.’ Ron put on his most charming smile and said: ‘It still pains me, how much money your project keeps off the markets. You could easily double or triple it on Wall Street. What am I saying? Your options are astronomical!’ Alice smiled. ‘I’ll tell you a secret. I’m a numbers junkie—’ ‘—No way!’ ‘I am. And the thought of our billions skyrocketing gives me a rush of excitement. Boy does it feel good.’ Ron laughed and Alice added, smiling: ‘That’s why I don’t play. I’d be one of the biggest idiots out there. I’d completely disappear in the game, blindly pushing the keys to win yet another bet, to achieve yet another high score, to make yet another trillion. And the only thing that could stop me, for some minutes, would be my excruciatingly hurting bladder.’ Ron burst out laughing.

© Charlie Alice Raya, book 4, building, 2025