Chronometrics: Chapter 3

In one of the floating cities of the world’s wealthy elite, a younger Dr. Chrono toiled away on commissioned work.

Dr. Chrono considered it a miracle that he wasn’t going grey early, with the way the people of the floating city ran him ragged. The elites that lived in the sky cities were called Meths, which was most likely short for “Methodicals,” and no one was quite sure what Methodicals referred to anymore. As might be expected of people that lived on their own islands in the sky, they were extremely biased against any outsiders and tended to cling to their specific communities and values. Calling them isolationist was a bit of an understatement.

Of course, Dr. Chrono had managed to amass enough wealth to be counted among the Meths himself, but even among the very rich, there were people who were obviously bottom-tier. Wealthy though he was, he was basically the poorest of the rich, barely making it above the threshold for acceptance into his city (which could be arbitrarily adjusted at times). As a result, the richer Meths (everyone else) used his genius against him and effectively held him hostage. He was made to handle many of the scientific upkeep tasks required for the city, and in exchange, he was allowed to live in a slightly better zone of the city than he would normally be.

Dr. Chrono viewed his inbox as essentially a free request booth for whatever whiny Meth decided they needed something today. Still, he was obliged to look through whatever came in. If he got kicked out, he doubted that the people of the surface would take kindly to him, either, regardless of how many of his inventions and advancements they were using. He sighed as he clicked through his inbox. Most of today’s requests were routine maintenance and repair requests, insofar as the gadgets requiring adjustments were routine. The other Meths were smart enough to leave simple machines and gizmos to the “lucky” servants that worked under them, so these “routine” repairs were actually for very important machinery.

Still, none of the maintenance requests was anything that would be particularly hard for Dr. Chrono. It said a lot about the nature of his intellect that the important gadgets needing tune-ups were “routine” for him. He’d go around, tweak the hardware or software, and then go on his way, simple as that. He was a glorified handyman, but at this point, he didn’t expect much better from his so-called peers.

One e-mail about two-thirds of the way down gave him pause at last. The subject line was “Who Killed Me?” Undoubtedly, it was a provocative opening, and Dr. Chrono’s interest was piqued. His cursor drifted over to the subject line, then clicked on it to open the e-mail. It read as follows:

“Dr. Chrono,

As the one who maintains the brain upload and download systems for the Meths, and by extension requests for downloads, I believe that you are the one best suited to receive this e-mail. Perhaps you know me from happening upon my file when I was re-downloaded last week? In any case, I will get to the situation at hand. I trust that you will be able to handle this professionally.

Last week, I was murdered. Perhaps due to some data loss from the way I died (the end of a long fall from being thrown out a window), I don’t remember a single thing about the incident. This troubles me, and I would like to have my assailant properly prosecuted. To this end, I would like you to download the mind of a certain notable detective from the past: Detective Leonard Riviera. I’m sure he won’t be picky about his body, so he’ll be fairly plug-and-play, so to speak. Once Detective Riviera is downloaded, arrange for him to be put on my case. I am confident that he can find the culprit.

That concludes your ‘mission brief,’ haha. Please confirm for me when the detective has been downloaded into a body. I look forward to the results.

Sincerely,

Montgomery Rasser”

One please, no thank yous. That made sense, coming from one of the pompous cases that saw fit to pull uploaded minds around to suit their needs. Brain uploads and downloads always left a bad taste in Dr. Chrono’s mouth, even if he was one of the minds behind the creation of the system. It wasn’t that he objected to his own creation; rather, he felt that Meths abused the system and took it for granted. It had gone to the point where, if someone was too useful, they would be uploaded upon their death and effectively kept around as servants for the Meths when their skills were needed.

Detective Riviera was one such case. He was famous in his time for solving many cases thought to have gone cold long ago, and being able to predict when and where a notorious phantom thief would strike next. That meant that he officially crossed the “too useful” threshold and was turned into a puppet for the Meths. Dr. Chrono felt bad for the guy, who was being forced in and out of different bodies and used for whatever silly Meth need arose. On the few occasions that he had gotten to speak with the detective, he seemed fine with the process, if a bit annoyed by not having a consistent body.

Dr. Chrono shrugged outwardly at his internal thoughts. It seemed that Detective Riviera was going to have another posthumous assignment. The upside was that these sorts of unconventional requests often carried a hefty monetary bonus with them, and while he doubted that he’d be moved up a rank, Dr. Chrono appreciated any resources with which he could close the gaps in his material life with.

After signing out of his e-mail, he made his way to the “brain bank,” the lab where most of the “worthy” minds were hosted, uploaded, and downloaded. It was time to get to work.

Follow for Chapter 4

Did you get a chance to read chapter 1 - (Chronometrics Chapter 1)

Did you get a chance to read chapter 2 - (Chronometrics Chapter 2)

So you want to create Dystopian Stories, exploring the fascinating cyberpunk landscapes.

When writing stories about dystopias, whether they are futuristic or not, there are a few aspects of building the world that the writer should keep in mind. Some world building concepts work better for different types of dystopias, but there are a few general rules that should serve you well to start out.

The first concept can be applied to writing in general, but it is still very important to keep in mind when focusing on the topic of dystopias: know your scope. If you're writing a story that's less than 1000 words, you clearly don't have that much room to cover the concepts of the world you're building. For those types of stories, it's best to pick one or two aspects of your dystopia and flesh those out within your framework. Trying to cram too much into too small space will cause problems for the pacing of your story, confusing the reader or making them lose interest in what they can understand. Pick an item of interest, form a structure around it, and keep the focus around that.

If you're writing a full novel, or there is no limit on your words or plot, this tenet applies somewhat less because you can control the scope more directly. You have more time and writing space to work with, so you can cover what you please and when you please. Still, getting wrapped up in minutiae can distract from the focus of your story.

The second concept is to be mindful of your tone when detailing events within the world. Contrary to what some might think, going as dark as possible and then some do not a good dystopia make. If nothing but awful things happen in your story, let alone your world, the reader will most likely tune out your story's events until they all blur together and interest is inevitably lost. While you don't necessarily need to jump directly to comedic relief, there needs to be a medium between suffering and joy that happens in your events. Even daily life events where not everything is terrible will go a long way in making sure the events don't blur together for your reader.

The third concept focuses on the building of your dystopia itself: make sure that the dystopian concepts you're using make sense in the context of your story. To a degree, it goes together with the previous two concepts. Knowing your scope will help you define the context of the story and the world, and being mindful of your tone will prevent you from introducing elements that are too jarring in your setting. How this concept applies to your worldbuilding varies depending on the core of your idea. If you're making a dystopia that's "descended" from the present, making sure your concepts have some tie to something occurring in the present will take you a long way. If you're focused on futuristic technology, define the limits of that technology and don't break them. Steampunk? Similar issue, except the aesthetics and expectations, is a bit more rigidly defined at times depending on your audience.

These guidelines can be met with careful planning, especially for longer stories. They can all be distilled into one tenet: know what you're doing. Decide on your focus, your tone, and what you intend to explore in your dystopian world before you charge off into your own brave new world. Shorter pieces do not necessarily require less planning; if anything, they require more structure to ensure that they have a payoff. The stronger your foundation, the stronger your writing and the better the payoff will be for the reader. Whether your goal is to shock, mesmerize, or simply entertain your reader, a strong support goes a long way.

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Dystopian Futures - Discord Group

This post is due to many people wanting to Create the voice files for The Short Stories I create which revolves on Dystopian Futures, Humanity, and many other ideas. This is the Discord group keep in mind it is still in RAW format.

Dystopian Futures - Discord Group

I am looking for voice talent see post below for more details.

I would like to make some AudioBooks out of them, I am looking for people who are very great at reading with personality and are able to give the listener a sense of being part of the book.

I am not looking for experienced Voice Over talent I am looking for Steemians that are English speakers, character actor, and improv artist. A smooth, professional and polished vocal style. That is capable of delivering recorded material to me in mp3, m4a, wav, or aiff formats.

If you are able and willing to provide I will pay 5 SBD per AudioClip of the story done, please keep in mind the Stories are very unique and should require a unique voice. They are between 500-800 words, I currently have about a dozen short stores on steemit and will continue to write more, thus giving more opportunities to people that want to earn and help out.

Some things I am looking for

Voice must be dark, with emotion
Must understand this is a dystopian setting
Able to make the listener be part of the story
Above 55 Rep just means you know how to get around here and you are somewhat active.

In order to be a good fit please read some of these stories to get a feel for how they should engulf the listener.

If you are interested in doing this small project with me and earn some SBD and of course your name as the narrator please contact me on Discord name chronocrypto. Hopefully, we can get a wide variety of voices for the project.

The piece will be read in addition to this introduction.

[Title]Written by: Hive account@chronocrypto[Narrator]

The Audio files will be uploaded on SoundCloud and posted on steemit by Hive account@chronocrypto, you will send me the audio clip through Discord so that everyone can listen to the stories.
this-mind-blowing-speech-by-morgan-freeman-will-make-you-question-every-life-decision-youve-made.jpg

Finished AudioBooks

Please Like and Follow if you like my work, Also a big thank you to Hive account@voraces and Hive account@avesa for the voices.

My Dystopian Novel on the Steem Blockchain (Chronometrics Chapter 3)

Follow for Chapter 4

So you want to create Dystopian Stories, exploring the fascinating cyberpunk landscapes.

I am looking for voice talent see post below for more details.

[Title]Written by: Hive account@chronocrypto[Narrator]

Please Like and Follow if you like my work, Also a big thank you to Hive account@voraces and Hive account@avesa for the voices.