Miss Witch doesn't want to be a diva

The heavy aircraft took off from the valley, blue air jets slowly lifted the fuselage.

In the cabin, Tilan was sitting next to the seat by the window. There was an incubator placed on the round table in front of her. Five birds were hugging each other for warmth inside, wrapped in white down, like five plush dumplings.

The roar outside the window gradually weakened, and the aircraft slowly rose into the sky and began to accelerate.

As if she was remembering something, Tilan took out a small chip from her pocket. It had a bright deep pink color and was dotted with bright blue foam spots like splashes of ink. It was very new.

After looking at the chip, Tilan waved gently to the autonomous unit not far away and said something. Then it came to the girl with the player in her arms and placed the dark gray and wood brown player on the table. .

The appearance of this player imitates the tape recorders of the past, and it looks a bit retro mechanical.

Pressing the button above, the card slot popped open. Tilan pressed the chip in with her fingers, and then closed it. Soon, a changing array of colorful dots appeared on the small screen of the player, which then converged into a line of text.

[‘Wave Recorder’——Mei]

Then the words dispersed, and the wavy points representing the ups and downs of the tone appeared, and then a slightly lazy and brisk song sounded, making people feel relaxed, like a drunken drink, like walking in an alley at night, with flashing lights and bright paintings on the walls. Full of graffiti.

This is a gift from a singer in the Periscope Star Territory. Her full name is May Fentini Zenani, but generally everyone calls her 'Polka Dot Recorder', which is her favorite title. She also took it herself.

Mei became famous relatively late. She was only discovered to be a singer when she was 29 years old. Before that, she had been working and living as an ordinary cashier.

The Orthogonal Frame star field is located in the south of the Federation territory, three star fields away from the Four-leaf crystal star field. It was the early star field of the Federation, but the economy was not developed and it was also full of pollution, poison, radiation, etc. It can be said that it is the same as the Four-leaf crystal star field. Akira's situation is very similar.

But unlike the Quatrefoil Crystal, the Quatrefoil Star Territory is quite ancient, and the earliest development period can be traced back to the early Fourth Era.

There are still traces of ancient times there, including a large number of abandoned steel buildings, giant projects across the continental shelf, a maze of rusty forests on the seabed, ancient machinery factories filled with smoke and steam, and so on.

Mei grew up in such an environment. Her father was a mechanical repairman, and her mother made a living by cooking simple meals using a steam stove.

Mei did not go to middle school, and dropped out of school to work after just graduating from elementary school. This would not be the case if it were an area under federal jurisdiction, but the area she lived in was not. It was a small town in a sea of ​​ruins full of radiation and rust, with the most people coming and going. They are the salvagers who come to hunt for treasure.

These salvage workers drive modified submarines and go deep into the water full of corrosive radiation and mutated sea beasts to salvage goods or items left over from the Fourth and Fifth Era. Occasionally, with good luck, they can find good antiques and then take them. Go to the central prosperous star field to sell money.

As a child, Mei did not have the conditions to receive music education. Perhaps her biggest hobby was listening to the old-fashioned tape recorder at home.

It was an antique, said to be from the early Fourth Age, and could play music recorded on tapes.

The tape recorder was repaired by his father, and he originally thought of selling it for money, but because he saw Mei hugging her as a child and refusing to let go, the father, who loved his daughter, gave up the idea of ​​selling it for money.

There were only two tapes accompanying the recorder, and Mei listened to the music recorded on them over and over again. Every beat, the noise and blur in the tape, and even the place where the tape was stuck were deeply imprinted in her mind. .

This also became the style of her music in the future.

When she was 13 years old, Mei began to help her mother prepare meals and sell them to the workers who came to salvage. Later, when she was a little older, she went to work as a cashier in a store in a small town.

The small town they live in cannot be connected to the federal central bank network, and the stores cannot afford expensive credit card machines. The transaction currency used is coins made of green copper, which is an extraordinary metal, but its value is not high. , used by locals as a currency substitute.

Because it is in an area that is out of federal control, this small town in a sea of ​​ruins can be described as extremely chaotic. However, fortunately, there are several local gangs to maintain law and order, so it is generally still habitable.

While working as a cashier, Mei Ke was used to seeing all kinds of customers, whether they were semi-modified humans, salvage workers with multiple robotic arms, archaeologists wearing expensive fabrics, or arrogant mercenaries, she gradually became more familiar with them. Take it for granted.

After getting through the anxiety and adaptation in the past few years, Mei has completely adapted to her job as a store cashier. She can even take some time out from work to play with some music, and her favorite thing is to turn the tuning keys of the tape recorder up and down. , listening to the freshness brought by a piece of music in a different key has almost become the only pleasure in her life.

There is an area that is not connected to the star network. The most common entertainment for people is to watch videos and films excavated from ancient ruins. As for the latest immersive movie of the Federation, sorry, they do not have an immersion cabin available to experience it. Not only are the products too expensive, but they also need to be connected to the inter-star network, which cannot be used without a legal license.

In this way, until the age of 28, a tourist who came to this small town heard the music played by the cashier next door while drinking in a bar. With some curiosity and novelty, he recorded the sound and then simply Asked Mei a few questions.

Afterwards, the passengers left and edited the journey into a video and posted it on the Star Network. Only later did people notice the girl and the ancient tape recorder in her hand.

As modern residents, the tape recorder is something that is not even introduced in textbooks. Many people are curious about it. They also slowly learned about this ancient audio player through the popular science of some netizens.

As a result, Mei's figure left a small trace on the Internet.

In this way, it was not until the next year that another traveler came to this place and specifically found Mei, wanting to see the tape recorder and listen to the music played on it.

Once again, Mei stood in front of the camera. She turned on the old tape recorder, and the mixed and unclear music in it was accompanied by the noisy voices in the background, the sound of clinking wine glasses, the roar of steam furnaces, and the sound of steel machinery crashing. Created an extremely impressive scene.

And then Mei hummed to the music, which was recorded by the camera and appeared in the public eye.

Three months later, an envoy sent by the Federal Central Council brought Mei to the Central Star Territory for testing, and it was confirmed that she had awakened her talent as a singer. She also nicknamed herself "Polka Dot" based on her childhood favorite. recorder'.

The confirmation of Mei's talent as a singer sparked a lot of discussion on the Internet. Many people were obsessed with her novel and retro music style, and then more people began to imitate it, until historians examined ancient history and officially named this style .

‘Vaporwave’ means retro and dynamic, soothing and smooth, with a mist-like feeling of water vapor.

This kind of music sounds extremely romantic, and you can feel the mist of water vapor just from your ears, just like its name, steam wave/steam wave. Someone said, "This is a moment that sounds like soaking in a big pink bathhouse, listening to retro dynamic music from the radio next door."

The ancient picture tube TV, the dark pink and blue blurred light spots, the slightly hoarse and fuzzy music, the raindrops and windows full of traces of time, tell the story of the end of an era, as well as the loss and sadness in the collision of wine glasses, which is intoxicating. The poison makes people addicted.

The antique player played the slightly steamy voice of Mei's song, and the hazy light spots danced, and the music sounded like a slight white noise, telling the old scenes in the memory, just like the place at the bottom of the cabinet used to place things. The newspapers were dug out again, and the news and deeds highlighted in them, things that were once popular and people cared about, have long been forgotten in the depths of memory.

Raindrops hit the glass window outside the aircraft, blurring the scenery outside the window.

Leaning on the seat, the girl listened to the rotating music of the player, and time flowed quietly.

In this way, until the aircraft slowly landed in the southern area of ​​​​the night, it was raining in the sky, and outside the black rain curtain was a flashing screen with floating colorful light spots.

————

"Hesia, do you know what chalk is?"

In the classroom many years ago, the teacher asked her, who had good academic performance, to answer, because at that time most of the other people in the class were sleeping and playing secretly, and did not pay attention to what the teacher said. After naming and criticizing several times to no avail, the teacher simply gave up. some students.

"Chalk is a type of calcite, and its main component is calcium carbonate. But unlike calcite, it is mainly formed from the remains of ancient microorganisms, so its texture is soft, like condensed powder. In the distant past, it could be regarded as natural Chalk, writing words.”

"That's right." The teacher asked Heshia to sit down with considerable satisfaction, and then talked about geological changes and the impact of ancient biological activities on the entire geological environment.

Everyone knows that the activities of life have traces, but the impact of these traces is so far-reaching that the public may not be aware of it.

The activities of ancient organisms have profoundly changed the geological conditions of the planet. Who would have thought at first that the gray-white rocks pressed under the bottom layer were the remains of life in the distant past.

After all, there are so many gray-white rocks like this that people ignore that they are not the product of natural geographical changes, but traces left by life.

There may be many galaxies and countless planets in this universe, but among them there can be chalk calcite and oil. Maybe one or two hands can count them all.

Material is common, but life is rare, even miraculous. Although those distant beings have died long ago, traces of their activities and their corpses still remain in this world, and even change the trajectory of today's civilization.

The discovery of oil has made great strides forward in the energy and power technology of civilization, catalyzing social changes, changing human lifestyles, and even creating different cultures and personalities.

The oxygen produced by the photosynthesis of ancient organisms led to the extinction of a large number of life forms, but it also laid the foundation for the birth of later life forms with larger bodies.

Even though some biological groups have long since disappeared, the traces of their past existence have deeply affected subsequent generations of races.

Time did not disappear, but settled in another form.

Maybe it's a stone, or maybe it's a sound.

The individual is small and helpless. Even if he spends his entire life, he may only be a tiny drop of water in a splash of water in the tide of the times. He can only see these and experience these.

Maybe some water drops are lucky and happen to emerge at the peak of the waves, allowing them to see the most vast and beautiful scenery. But more water drops are just ordinary and are caught in the waves, rising and falling as time goes by. , shattered, silently.

Everyone is unique and different.

Another meaning of this sentence is that the world is not absolutely fair. Some people are born to run fast, fly high, jump far, and are smarter and more beautiful.

If it is accepted that more work brings more rewards, it means that the differentiation between rich and poor will occur.

A party with more and more resources will become more and more powerful.

According to natural evolution, strong individuals will be continuously screened out and survive, while weak individuals will be eliminated.

But the development of civilization is different from nature. The power of ethnic groups or collectives far exceeds that of individuals. Even weak individuals can easily defeat powerful and dispersed opponents as long as they gather together.

In order for countless individuals to willingly gather together and condense together, it is necessary to consider their interests, give them the rewards they deserve, and ensure a fair system and environment.

If we want to ensure fairness, should we distribute according to the results of labor? Then this means more work, more gain, and the creation of rich and poor.

The weaker party still faces elimination even within the group. In order to get better treatment, these weak parties will try to unite again. They are the group within the group and fight against others in order to protect themselves.

As a result, new groups emerged one after another, once again causing the ethnic groups to become divided, no longer close, and weakened. This was reflected in the tearing of the social level and the different thoughts of each class.

At this time, the more 'just' the law is, the more it intensifies the advantageous party's crushing of the weak party, causing the gap to further widen, until finally the entire society is torn apart, and everyone loses the future in the internal conflict.

In order for the whole society to remain cohesive, it is necessary to add patches, that is, "more work, more gain", but also to pay more to the disadvantaged parties, so as to bridge the gap and prevent the society from being torn apart. In this sharing and giving, a common emotional connection is rebuilt.

Such behavior is manifested in the levying of more taxes on high-income earners and the support of wealthy areas to poor areas.

The original intention is good, but the more powerful the party, the easier it is to seize power. It is undoubtedly painful to cede one's own interests and help others.

Humans are still animals and maintain the instinct of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. If another living being prays in front of a person, there is a high probability that he will receive harmless charity and sharing, but if he is faced with lifeless screens and numbers, How many people are willing to take out the fruits of their own labor and hand them over.

Will it really be given to those who need it? Will it really be put to good use? Is it really not a scam by some politicians? Has everyone really paid it? Is such a tax really fair?

Suspicion and deception erode trust like poison. People are afraid of giving and afraid of being used. This makes them no longer trust the collective, gradually become separated and fragmented, and then slowly become weaker.

The dilemma faced by the Four-leaf Crystal Star Region is just one of the many problems within the Federation.

When a group is large enough, it needs a strong skeleton to support the connection. In material reality, the Federation may still maintain a strong military force to deter separatist thoughts and various grievances and dissatisfaction, but on a spiritual level, it has long ceased to exist. The initial prosperity and unification, that kind of unity and mutual cooperation, has slowly disappeared into history.

When the suffering in poor areas is not seen and valued, the happiness in wealthy areas will also not be recognized.

People begin to escape from reality and become obsessed with the simple and beautiful past. No one can hope for the future anymore. Even if there are fantasies about the future, most of them are full of despair and pessimism.

The popularity of 'Vaporwave' style music is also a beautifying fantasy that most people in the Federation are frustrated with the future and the old times. The intoxicating lights and hazy vocals have become a dreamland to escape the pain of reality.

Chalky calcite, the raw material for making cement and the cornerstone of building buildings, is now an inconspicuous gray powder, but it was also a tiny life that once existed. However, such corpses are so common and ordinary that people gradually forget them. What it is.

But the activities of life will still leave traces, and they will continue to accumulate and accumulate. Even such a powerful Rose Federation will slowly be covered with gray color, losing its former vitality and brilliance.