In 2114, Mars began the Milky Way Utopia by reaching out to Earth peacefully during a difficult time for humankind, offering resources, aid, and alliance. Slowly, other planets from the Solar System and other neighboring systems came forward to form their alliances.
However, the Utopia wasn’t formed without struggle. Planet Hajja, a notoriously hostile people, declared war on Paeseo, their former slave planet. The conflict drew many planets into the fray, dividing the developing Utopia. After a bloody, 10-year conflict, many leaders from every planet met together, devising a plan to solve the conflict without any more innocent bloodshed.
The Versus Games were born, created to maintain peaceful relations between planets by providing an environment where conflicts could be settled through competitive, controlled battle. Every four Earth years, the planets would come together in friendly competition against each other for a title of honor, power, and pride. Any grievances between people and planets, no matter the species, would be resolved through the Versus Games, and the Games only, without allowing innocent people to suffer the repercussions of such tension. Fighters would be able to practice self-control, discipline, and good sportsmanship, further providing a peaceful and united Utopia.
At least, that’s what the Treaty said.
Sure, the bloody, destructive, tragic type of war was staved off by the tournament. But many other cold wars brewed among the Milky Way’s planets. One of the most prominent ones on Earth would be Fighters versus Socializers; a clan of trigger-happy, karate-chopping, emotionless soldiers against a clique of virtually popular, fashion-obsessed, Miss Milky Way beauty queens.
It was no wonder the other planets made fun of Earth. Humans decided to take the concept of what was supposed to keep peace and turn it into an argument. Socializers were mainly a human thing, and they turned the planet into a laughingstock over the years. The classy, respectful generation of pageant kings and beauty queens made way for the superficial, vain, and self-absorbed wannabes. Despite the stupidity of it all, the opinion had a strong influence on the general population. Whoever lived on Earth, human or not, would have to pick a side, or else.
Unfortunately, with humanity’s reputation decreasing each year, the other species made it a point to remind them that they were inferior. Doors closed and paths narrowed for humans in almost every career path except for the two warring worlds— fighting and Socializing. The Versus Interplanetary Peacekeeping Games were, by law, open to every species in the Utopia, and no species could be rejected unless they committed an act of war or they voluntarily opted out of participating.
The Socializing field was created by humans, so there weren’t many species willing to dabble in that field of pageants, speeches, and fighter-shaming broadcasts. Unless one wanted a long and hard journey to the top of their career, these two fields were the only ones where humans could truly thrive with the least amount of obstacles in the way.
Since she saw her first Versus Games at six years old, Calista Medley was always at war within herself.
Case in point, her true feelings fought hard against the desire of her peers’ approval as she squealed like a maniac in feigned excitement. On her projected screen were the holograms of her three best friends: Danica Pellin, Rebecca Starling, and Elizabeth Devon. All three of them were rosy-cheeked as they excitedly babbled on and on about the scholarship the four of them had just received.
“Can you imagine?!” Danica screeched. “We can meet Delancey Wostak!” She gasped. “What if she tutors us?!” She squealed again.
Calista smiled, inwardly cringing. Couldn’t this girl speak like a normal person for one second? She had to install her ear shields to protect her hearing from her banshee-like shrieking.
“Not just Delancey Wostak!” Rebecca followed. “Kennedy Cindy and Donna Dakota, too! Can you believe we’ll be in the same school as the Junior Founders?! We could become Art School members! We’ll be famous, then our daughters will be famous, then our granddaughters…”
“The SociaLights in the Art School.” Danica shivered. “That gave me chills!”
When would this conversation ever end? Calista’s cheeks were getting sore from the fake smile.
The SociaLights was the name of their Socializer channel— the name was Danica’s idea. No arguments allowed. Calista had joined it after failing to join the Junior Versus program: a smaller version of the competition that featured younger fighters all over Earth. Discouraged by her mother— one of history’s Miss Milky Way winners— she wound up getting added to the cast of the channel through her mother’s connections with her fellow beauty queens and their daughters.
Danica and Rebecca’s mothers were both Miss Milky Way contestants back in the day, but only Calista’s mother had won before, making her the more influential of the three. In this SociaLights, Danica was the more controlling one in their group. Elizabeth was the outsider; she was an aspiring Socializer that loved to play music by hand and craft art pieces without any technology whatsoever. The other two girls decided Elizabeth needed ‘improvement’ and ‘generously’ invited her to join them at one of Calista’s mother’s Sociapalooza parties in Indianapolis.
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Since joining the channel, Calista had dedicated every day to making broadcasts with the girls about celebrity gossip and new fashion trends. She loathed every minute of it, but as long as her mother didn’t criticize her every waking moment, she would bear it. The only part she found enjoyable was making new outfits for the girls to show off and sell to their followers. It was the only time she found peace; being alone in her room, her fingers flitting across holo-buttons and a work of art coming alive right in front of her.
For the past five years, she’d hidden her love for the Versus Games and pretended to adopt the same contempt and disgust the other girls had. As far as they were concerned, she’d realized what an immoral and violent event it was and that whoever participated in such a competition was a violent and horrible person. She’d done her best to avoid following the lives of the great fighters. The less she saw of it, the less it would hurt her with the sting of her failure.
This year in particular was difficult. The Games occurred every four years, and this was one of those years. In just a month, the new class of freshman students would be entering the US’s fighting school, Fistborn Academy, preparing for the upcoming competition. Whenever Calista went out, whether for a spa day, or a Thinning session, or a shopping day with her mother, she’d hear nothing but hype for the tournament.
Instead, she focused on the conversation at hand. Danica was gushing about how their ‘unique’ channel and their talents got them all into Calista’s mother’s alma mater, the New York Women’s School of Social Arts. It was the best Socializer school in the country, and their glowing golden ticket to a life of riches and fame. Every now and then, they’d offer a rare, full-ride scholarship for members of a channel to attend, and the SociaLights had just gotten an offer yesterday, which they all gladly accepted.
Calista inwardly scoffed. Their channel wasn’t what got them into that school. Knowing her mother, she’d made a few calls and sweet-talked enough people to give them the scholarship. Jennifer Zyben was a powerful name in the human celebrity world. All Calista was known as was ‘Jennifer Zyben’s daughter’, not ‘the girl from the SociaLights’.
“We’re gonna be besties with the Art School! My mom was one of them when she went to NYWS!” Rebecca squealed. “Uber-awesome!”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Elizabeth interjected, providing the voice of reason among the excited buzz. “I know your moms were famous and all, but I feel like people in the Art School look at you as a person, you know? We’ll probably have to work a little harder to get to-”
“Stop zapping our energy, Liz,” Danica interrupted. “You’ll probably have to work hard because nobody knows you. It’ll be easier for Becca, Cali, and me. Our moms were Miss Milky Way finalists and they were all in the Art School, so it really shouldn’t be hard for us.”
The Art School was a group of the best students at NYWS. They were all popular women with billions of followers on their way to becoming the next Miss Milky Way finalists. The ‘Art School’ name came from the channel of the school’s eight founders, who had passed their talents and followers down to their great-grandchildren by now.
Elizabeth was right, though. If Danica and Rebecca kept up their overconfident attitudes just because of their family names, they wouldn’t make a great impression. But of course, they wouldn’t care what Liz would say.
After some more inhuman, irritating screeching from her childhood friends, the call finally ended and Calista could drop the fake smile. She sighed deeply and sunk into her seat. She should’ve tried harder to get into the Junior Versus. She should’ve proven to her family that being a fighter was honestly a better career than… this. For the rest of her life, she’d have to pretend to like people, look ‘beautiful’ 24/7, and Thin her waist to practically a stick so she could keep her family’s name proud and high in the Socializer society.
The perfect Medley, as her parents would say. Jennifer Zyben-Medley was certainly doing her husband a lot of favors— namely, her mother-in-law. Calista’s father had climbed a tall and tiring ladder to get to where he was in the Engineering field, but he’d made it. His mother was a beauty queen who had set him up with Calista’s mother to further the family name.
If only Socializing was only about making new outfits and taking freeze scans to share with the galaxy. No schmoozing, no smiling, no constant parties and galas and romance controversies. Calista would probably get set up with some male Socializer that was a Mr. Milky Way finalist and a total glitchbag.
At least he would be handsome, though…
Calista stared at the soft screen in front of her. She was crazy for thinking this.
Just a little update… just one…
She checked her surveillance app to make sure her mother wasn’t checking her screen, then logged onto the Versus News platform. As she expected, there were ads everywhere about applying. ‘APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!’ ‘BECOME ONE OF THE 150!’ ‘FOLLOW THE PATH TO GREATNESS!’
Calista couldn’t help the uncomfortable guilt in her stomach. The SociaLights had four values: Love, Peace, Freedom, and Loyalty. Calista represented the fourth. With the thoughts she had about the Versus, she felt incredibly… well, disloyal. If they knew what she was thinking…
Calista regretted looking at the platform. She should’ve just left it alone. Now that desire within her lurched once more, pushing her to open the application, but she knew she couldn’t do that. Her mother would kill her if she knew the thoughts she had. “You’re not meant to be in that disgusting competition,” she’d told her after her second failed attempt at the Junior Versus. “I hope this little phase wears off soon. You know what they’re going to say if they know? You know what my followers would think?”
What her grandparents would think, what her cousins would think, what her friends would think, what everyone would think. It was always about that.
She closed the platform before she could get more depressed. It seemed that NYWS would be her future after all. It wasn’t like she had a chance to be a fighter. She hadn’t trained in years, especially with her family constantly watching her one way or another. She’d never match up to those pros.
Instead, she was what Jennifer Zyben wanted her to be: the beautiful, skinny, flawless girl with just the right amount of confidence and the right amount of modesty. A role model to so many other girls out there who would probably trap themselves in a life of meeting standards they’d never truly meet.
She’d be her mother’s ‘perfect Medley’.