[Chapter 0: Soft Start]

Wiping down the counter after a long day, something is satisfying about cleaning up. Especially if it is long overdue, like giving the toilet bowl a good deep clean and polish, after all, everyone uses the restroom, whether we want to or not. It’s getting late, taking a nice long look at this bar that some people see as a safe haven, a quick place to rest, find a quest, get into some trouble, get out of trouble. Wires dangle against the wall, connecting the monitors of all shapes and sizes to one another. It may look like the white rabbit’s technomancer’s lair or a 15 year old boy describing what cyberpunk is, but it’s quaint and has a personal charm to it. Not exactly the sleek and clean look of the future one would envision, but it grows on you, like a friendly looking fungi. The interconnectedness of it all, is a bit much to take in at first, your brain calculating what it could even be about, but follow a wire and you’ll eventually find not where, but how it started.

“Rommy, Stop being dramatic, come on, it’ll be here tomorrow.”

That’s the owner of the bar, my boss, Lopnik Runeis, but for the sake of simplicity, we call her, “L-Rune, Come on, Just take it in…”

“Of what? The mixed smell of chemicals and beer?”

“Yea! How often does your everyday person get to smell this?”

“Well if you hate your life as much as I do, everyday.”

Lopnik gives the biggest smile as she can, which isn’t a big one, but it’s a rare sight to behold, and twirls her keys around, “Hurry up man, I have some soap operas to catch.” With urgency, I exit through the back door into the alley. “Any plans?” Lopnik inquires. “Ah, you know, the usual.” “Right, working on those new machines or writing that instruction manual…” As I heavily debate how to go about returning home- “Or you know playing video games and jerking off until you pass out. ” Lopnik blurts out. “Hehe, yeah you know me! I’ll see you tomorrow night, for trivia? ” “Oh no, trivia got pushed to next week, some guys are coming to check out the bar. ” This is a new development for me. “Oh alright, Am I still coming in? What’s the game plan?” “Should be business as usual, See ya Romm.” Lopnik walks towards her rideshare as I walk toward the bus stop. I take out my holophone and instantly bombarded with hundreds of notifications, for what reason? I open the transit app and see when the bus is coming, or if it passed already. Turns out, I shouldn’t have stayed an extra minute to reminisce, I guess I now know for next time. As I sit on the bench awaiting the bus, I think about myself, not in a narcissistic way but in an introspective way.

What if I get bored of what I'm doing with my life? Or how will I go about starting a new life trajectory? I hate bombarding my brain with thoughts like these, it makes me feel worthless, but that can’t be true at all. I have a purpose, I have skills, abilities, goals (more or less), but sometimes, sometimes… It’s just beyond words at the moment. Just taking in the stars to help my brain piece my thoughts together, seemingly random, but ultimately a beautiful spanoramic picture across the galaxy. Funnily enough, that’s my sister’s name. The Commute back home is long and grueling. Some days I jolt up thinking I missed my stop, maybe a part of me wishes I did, so I have something more interesting to talk about other than installing a new shelf, getting a new video game, or starting a new show that isn’t exactly in the mainstream. As soon as I get back to my relatively small apartment, I want to crash on my bed immediately. Unfortunately, I am a bit of a germaphobe, and I don’t want the entire city of Plack Hondes on my bed, so I hop in the shower to clean off, refresh my body, and wipe away all the bad stuff I brought back home with me from the day, Mentally, physically and emotionally. It never seems to disappear completely though, like a sauce stain of your favorite tee.

Now here’s the best part, right after I dry off, I get to do one of my favorite pastimes, falling limp onto my bed, you have got to try it sometime. Just the pure relief you feel is almost unexplainable as your spine thoroughly thanks you for giving it a long deserved rest after putting such strenuous pressure on it all day. However, the amount of time I stay in that position may be alarming to some, it’s pure bliss when you’re not throwing something on the TV to distract yourself from going to bed. Even watching TV nowadays is work, I have to take myself out of my reality and download this new one, and then by the end of the episode, I’m like, “Great, Now what? ” I say aloud while staring at my ceiling. At least I have a ceiling to stare at… Maybe I’ll catch up on some sleep tonight, I’m probably years in debt for some good quality sleep, not even the idea for a nap sounds like a good idea. Even in my dreams, I’m up 24/7.

[Chapter 1: Hard Start]

The first thoughts of the day, clearheaded, bright, ready to take on the world. Only because you’re expecting to wake up into a world you’re familiar with. It’s rare to get these days as one grows older. Nowadays, I wake up and feel groggy and foggy, with a pain or sore from the day or night before. And some of those days, are the beginning of best days of your life. I’d much rather go to bed when I feel like it and wake up when it feels natural to me. Like 11am, such a magical time, when the day has already started, people are already where they need to be and I start work in about 30 minutes. 30 minutes! Luckily for me I have a ton of practice getting ready to leave within 10-15 minutes. And I knew I had enough time to quickly get an outfit together and have a small breakfast, frozen waffles, but man, they demolish my intestines.

Cars come naturally to me, like they are another creature with anatomical organs, and we are the brains operating its motor functions, Which would mean the gas is the blood of the car. And the fumes exuding from the exhaust would be its farts? A nostalgic smell I would say. All this work has become a background visual, some would call it ASMR. I really find myself lost in my thoughts, or rather the echochamber of my mind, all that twisting and cranking adds to my thoughts as I delve deep into fictitious scenarios and what I call rehearsals. I’ve always had this odd “super power” if you wanna call it that, but ever since I was young, I had flashes of a single frame of the future, visions if you may, and at the time I thought, “Huh wow, I guess that is how my life could be.” and didn’t think much of it any longer. Looking back retrospectively, I’ve always had this power of intuitive foresight. I haven’t actively used it, and I don’t think I can, not like I can channel it. Life has been really boring as of late.

“Zoeken!” probably one of the only people I confide in rips me out of the zone. “Hey Denker, What’s up?” Keelan and I hang out practically all the time outside of work, but our boss has us call each other based on our last names, no other reason given except it keeps work relationships professional. “Carborator’s good?” He asks. “Yup.” I suck in my lips looking to get back into my work. I was monologing after all. Denker puts on a straight face and nods subtly. “After this we have a higher classed client vehicle that needs someone to take a look at. And considering you are the best hand in the shop.” I slip on my headphones again and finish up the car I was working on. “I’ll get to it after this.” “Thanks again.” and he finally walks away. Sometimes I wonder where the time goes when people leave and I’m left to my own devices yet again. It’s kind of like blank spaces of memories, where I generally know what I was doing, but catch me at a bad time and I wouldn’t be about to tell you any specific details about what I saw, heard or did. It’s not like blacking out or anything, it’s more so like doing my thing, and the next minute, I’m already on my next objective. And just like that, I’m buffing out some scratches, popping out some dents of a highly armored rich dude’s car. I wish I owned a car to begin with, but in this economy, you have to work 4 jobs at once in order to even make rent on time. I can’t stand to hear older folks say dumb shit like, “When I was your age-“ you know it was wrong when it starts like that, but then they go on to talk about how they worked an 8 hour overnight shift with an hour nap during their lunch break to be rested enough for their next job in the morning. And I can’t really fact check that, but damn, sucks to be you I guess.

Maybe what they’re trying to say is that life has you doing all sorts of crazy things to make ends meet. I say just tie the ends together and hope the next guy figures it out, if it becomes undone, oh well. This job is taking longer than expected, there’s an awful lot of blue powdery substance spread across the matte red interior of the car. The box of powdered Dono’holes must’ve slipped out of the intern’s hand or something. Do I need to go into any more details on why internships suck for both parties? I would hate to bring on a handful of inexperienced students who may or may not even be interested in the general career field and then have them make a bunch of mistakes that someone I hired previously could do perfectly, and maybe even faster. As for the students? Get paid for your time! I never understood the “getting experience needed” to go and apply for the job you want, it just made me frustrated thinking about the intricate and generally complicated nature of the society that I live in. There’s going to be a lot of bullshit like this and I try to keep a one track focused mind.

Suddenly someone tosses a rock at the car I’m working in. “Oh shit, I knew this metal was practically undentable, but I thought it was just their slogan or something.” Ladies and Gents, My old childhood friend, Hassen. I roll down the window from the front seat, “You like my new ride? Just came in today. Say, are you gonna pay for that?” I gesture over to the new scratch Hassen made. “Pfft. as if I could even afford it.” I step out of the car and squirt a pea sized drop of Scrap-away onto my glove and run it over the freshly made scratch, which disappears as if it was never there. “That will never cease to amaze me.” Hassen stares in awe. “What’s up, Bika?” I ask only because I’m at work and he has me cornered. “I’m just doing my usual ride around the neighborhood and figured I would stop by.” Great, a nonchalant reason. “You better leave before this guy picks up his car.” “Come on, we never hang anymore.” I don’t know what people like Hassen do with their time, but I just imagine him as this cool, leather jacket wearing biker who just drives his beast of a bike around town, bugging everyone and doing a bunch of sidequests to make money. “I first looked for you at the bar, but a bunch of business-y looking people were there, I’m guessing it was their happy hour.” I step out of the client’s repaired car and ask him, “Oh, sh-dang, What time is it?” Little did I know, That was the last time I was going to be asking for the time.

Life was simpler then, A lot simpler. I wish I could describe how it happened. My name is Rommel Zoeken. And this is how I became a mechanic for a band of misfits, deliquents, weirdos and the utterly insane. Turns out, my boss and good friend Lopnik found themselves in a scheme with these high-classed businessmen and unfortunately… Well… Here’s how it played out: I walk to the bar with Keelan, just talking the shit and ranting about how shitty life is as one does. Once we enter, The businessmen and L-Rune and a couple other of bar staff were in some sort of standoff, Keelan says with excellent timing, “Oh! Wrong door… We’ll be leaving now!” We both slowly exit the bar and start booking it to his car nearby while gunshots go off. We look back and those suits are on our trail. We forget about the car and start cutting through alleyways, zig-zagging through them as if it was a regular day in the city. I don’t know what L-Rune got herself into, but whatever it was, we were witnesses to it, and now we’re just as wanted as her. After a lot of running, we hid behind a dumpster for a bit just to figure out what the hell just happened.

“Uh, so did you know what just transpired?” I asked Keelan.

“Not a damn clue, but good for Lopnik! Making her life more exciting!”

“She could be dead right now, not the time for jokes.”

“Oh right. Sorry. Weren’t those-?”

“The rich clients from earlier? Yeah… We must’ve accidentally been walked in on a mob or gang exchange, And L-Rune is somehow caught in the middle all of it...”

“Or! Or… Maybe the nice people we work with just found themselves in a tricky situation?”

We both stare at each other in confusion and out of breath. I rebuke, “Whatever it is, I don’t think our lives will be the same ever again.

[Chapter 2: Our Great Big “Healthy” Planet]

I don't wanna do it anymore.

All my life has been a bore.

Chasing ghosts behind locked doors.

I've been breaking, bleeding, sore.

Tell me what I've been fighting for.

@ @ @

I keep falling into bad habits.

I keep making the same mistakes.

Tell me why I don't want to listen.

In sound and sane logic.

Oh, I don't want to go insane.

At a nearby Hotel, Madi wakes up and begins her vigorous morning routine, she works her cleanser into a foam with a little bit of water. Then Madi taps a few drops of toner on her face with a cotton pad. She then presses a couple pumps of antioxidant serum and waits for that to absorb. After that she plumps and hydrates her eyes with eye cream. She then ends her routine by rubbing her face with moisturizer. Madi applies her primer, her foundation, blush, concealer, eyeliner, and a light lipstick.

Madi takes her phone out and opens TikTok and begins recording. She creates a video sponsoring a tanning product called Tanologist, in her usual deadpan story time videos that she is known for. As a joke, She starts it by mentioning how her favorite place to live is delusion, And compares that to how tan she think she is. She applies the product and she gives herself a fake tan.

Lauren then video calls her. Madi stops the recording and Lauren complements her, and asks Madi to bring her purse as absolutely adores it. Madi accepts the compliment. The conversation is brief, Lauren says her goodbyes and hangs up. Madi resumes the recording. She says how much she loves the product, and stops recording. After scrolling through her comments for about 10 minutes, she stops when she lands on a comment that reads, “imagine hating your skin so much that you change it.” She puts her phone in her purse and heads downstairs.

* * *

Madi walks out of into the hotel lobby with white box sunglasses, a pink cutoff denim jacket, a white minidress, and white sneakers. She sees her friends Amanda, Lauren, and Bryana, Dressed in similar palette to her's. Bryana screams in excitement. Amanda follows her as they both give Madi a hug. They all complement each others on their outfits and making sure to bring up the brand names. The bus begins to drive off. Bryana runs towards the bus and bangs on the door, telling the driver to stop the bus. The bus driver breaks immediately and tells them the bus was scheduled to leave at 8 AM, and tells them to take their seats.

* * *

Lauren, Amanda, and Bryana run out of the bus and immediately start coughing and gaging. They complain about the smell and lack of leg room. Madi thanks the bus driver and steps out of the shuttle. She looks at the entrance to the festival and sees along line under a tent. Bryana approaches the security guard and asks where the entrance is for celebrity influencers. He points them in the direction of the main entrance tent. Bryana stomps off and tells the girls that tent is the only entrance.

They wait in line for an hour until Amanda pulls a staff member to the side and asks why it's taking so long to admit everyone entry. The staff explains that they are understaffed and some metal detectors broke. Bryana butts in and give them her take, explaining how everyone here deserves better as they all have at least 1 million followers. The crowd cheers. A staff manager says on the loud speaker, the wait time is roughly 30 minutes, looking directly at the posse.

* * *

Madi, Lauren, Amanda and Bryana attempting to cool themselves off with their purses. After being let in, Lauren goes to bathroom towards the direction of the bar. Bryana and Amanda go in the giant "Tanologist" display sign to take pictures. Madi goes to the bar and asks for multiple drinks. Madi takes out her phone from her purse and looks at through her photo gallery. She opens the gallery titled, "Dad". As she goes through the pictures, We see a young Madi with her father, the next photo is of him in a hospital bed. Madi bats her eyes as an attempt as not to cry. She puts her phone away.

Somebody dressed a gray hoodie and sunglasses, grabs Madi's purse while she drinks 6 cocktails talking to various other influencers at the Tanologist Booth's bar and then passes out. Lauren, Amanda, and Bryana carry her back to the shuttle bus to head back to the hotel.

* * *

Madi tries to look for her phone in the room, but she's unable to find it. She goes to the front desk of the hotel and asks them for help finding her purse. The receptionist goes to the back to review security footage and concludes she didn't return with her purse. The receptionist offers to buy Madi an Uber to a phone store. The Uber arrives and Madi walks outside.

Madi enters the Uber and meets Raul, He asks how shes been. Madi explains how she's stranded in California and no one knows where she is. Raul says he'll stay with her for the rest of the day until she has her stolen items back. Later, after the short drive, they make it to the phone store she immediately thanks him and swiftly leaves and closes the door behind her. Raul turns off the engine and waits for Madi to return.

Madi walks up to the front desks and asks if she can get a new phone. The employee asks if she knows her service provider information, which she doesn't. She goes back outside and spots Raul outside waiting for her.

Madi asks why Raul waited for her. Raul says she needed help, and he would feel bad knowing he left someone stranded in California. She thanked him for waiting. Raul says that they're gonna file a police report for her stolen purse. Raul starts the car after Maid is buckled up and starts driving to the police station. Madi is nervous and hesitant to go as she doesn't see herself as the type of person to go the police for help. Raul tells her that he got it under control, and she does not need to worry as much as she currently is.

* * *

At the police station, The police officer at the front desk is having a hard time understanding the Spanish family speaking to them. Raul enters and Madi follows behind him as he helps the officer by translating for the family. she is captivated to how kind he is. After, Madi then walks up to the desk and explains what happens, the officer hands her a police report and asks her to fill it out, Raul helps Madi fill it out. She then calls her mom on Raul's cell phone and asks her to use the Find My Phone app to locate Madi's stolen purse. They show the location to the police officers and they send a car to go to the location, it seems to be an house rental near the hotel. Raul and Madi Follow behind the officers, but Madi spots her favorite coffee shop and asks for a drink, Raul happily obliges.

* * *

Raul and Madi sit on the hood of his car while the police search the house. Madi thanks Raul for the coffee. Raul asks why is her phone so important to her. Madi explains that her entire life is on that phone, Raul laughs and says to be patient, and it will eventually turn up. The police officer walks to Raul's car and said they can't find the phone. Raul invites Madi to dinner, a nice little spanish neighborhood bar and grill. Raul laughs as he says it's probably not like those big fancy restaurants that she usually goes to.

* * *

Madi and Raul are having dinner and margaritas. He asks her when is birthday is and she says April 13th. Raul realizes and says that the same day her daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Madi apologizes profusely as she wasn't aware, she empathizes with him as she shares how she lost her father young. Raul says its fine, and it was out of each others control.

Madi asks how long and why Raul is driving with Uber. Raul says its the only way to help pay the bills for her treatment. Raul wants her daughter to live a normal teenage life, but can barely afford to take her anywhere extravagant. Madi thanks Raul for helping her out, even though he seems to have bigger problems to worry about. Raul says he feels like he can make a difference in this situation as he has more control over it. Madi offers to invite Raul, his wife and daughter to Coachella. He declines the offer as it's her tickets. After finishing dinner, Raul drives Madi back to her Hotel. Before Raul drives off, he tells Madi hell be back tomorrow in case to help her out again.

Madi hears knocking on her hotel door, She opens it to see Amanda, Lauren, and Bryana. They enter and give her a group hug. They express their concerns as they thought she was dead or kidnapped. Amanda takes out her phone and records a video for TikTok. Amanda says that Madi is alive and can’t wait to see all of her fans at Coachella. Madi interjects and says the tickets where on her phone, and until it is found, Coachella is canceled.

Bryana butts in and says that all of their followers are counting on the group to deliver them Coachella content. Madi says that Raul is coming to pick her up to try to search for her phone again. Lauren tries to hide the shocked look onher face. Amanda, Bryana tell her just to buy a new phone so her life can go back to normal again and they can go to Coachella. Bryana and Amanda leave the room and Lauren stays behind to talk to Madi. Lauren apologizes for Bryana’s and Amanda’s behavior and disregard of Madi’s situation. Madi says this should not be happening to her, and how she has a bunch of followers who are relying on her.

Lauren stops her and says that people wouldn’t even notice, because the truth is everything online is replaceable and her viewers will just find another “Madi” to intake. Lauren tells her the internet is a cesspool of people tryingto convince each other their lives are more important than others. Madi tears up and thanks Lauren for being real in her fake bubble she wrapped her life in. Lauren leaves Madi’s room to check up on Bryana and Amanda. Madi gets ready and waits for Raul to pick her up again.

* * *

When the duo settles down after ordering their coffee, Raul asks how was Madi’s morning. She says she considering buying a new phone to continue posting, but she also doesn’t want to get rid of her old phone as she has a ton of picture of her father on it. Raul promises Madi that they will find her phone, Raul's phone then receives a text from Madi’s mom claiming that her phone is still near the house rental. They decide to go check it out for themselves.

* * *

Raul pulls in across the street facing the house in question. They wait outside the house in Raul’s car. They see the same person in a hoodie and sunglasses. Walk though the gate to enter. Raul and Madi leave the car and approach the house, they call out to the mysterious figure, who is rummaging though the bushes. The phone burglar gets startled and begins running towards the backyard with a handful of purses stuffed into her hoodie.

Raul and Madi pursue them, but Raul is unable to keep up. The phone thief hops over the fence and Madi falls behind, Madi is unable to keep up with the thief. The eulsive robber jumps a tall fence and Madi officially gives up the chase. Then, Madi sees a chipped nail extension next to the fence. Madi goes back to Raul’s car and tells him they got away. Raul is holding a handful of purses, and makes a witty and humorous comment. Madi sighs and gets back into Raul’s car. Raul gets back in and drives them back to the hotel.

* * *

Back in her Hotel Room, Raul and Madi discuss what just happened, he asks if Madi remembers any distinguishing features. Madi says the mysterious hooded person had painted extended nails. Amanda and Bryana barges in through the door in panic. They tell Madi their purses were stolen too. Lauren Enters shortly after slightly out of breath and takes out her phone and uses the Find My Friends app on her phone. Amanda sees that Lauren's nail is chipped and one fell off, she asked what happened and Lauren says she wasn’t paying attention and she accidentally chipped it, she also claimed her nails were very cheap.

Lauren tells Amanda not to worry as she bought everyone new nails for Coachella. Lauren finds the phones on the app and the GPS shows their purses, or their phones at least, are on the side of the road somewhere. Bryana and Amanda beg Raul to take them, he shrugs them off and gets ready to go. Bryana, Amanda, Lauren, and Madi follow and get ready as well. Amanda pulls Madi to the side and asks if Raul is a creep and if she needs help, blink twice. Madi retorts and asks if Amanda’s dad is a creep, she agrees. Madi Reassures Amanda that she trusts Raul as they all leave the room one by one.

* * *

Raul is driving Madi, in the passenger seat, where Lauren, Amanda and Bryana, are in the back seat to the GPS location. They all keep an eyes out too see where are their purses. On the way, they see a spread of various other purses and various small bags. Raul pulls over the car and tells all of them to spread out to find the phones.

Bryana finds Amanda’s and Madi’s purse. Bryana looks to find even more purses and pocket bags scattered on the side of the road. Bryana gives back Madi’s purse and gives Amanda her purse as well. Madi turns on her phone and she has no notifications for TikTok. She does get a notification reminder that Coachella is starting in 5 hours. She warns the others and they all pack into Raul’s car. He asks what’s the rush and Madi says it takes at least 3 hours to get ready and 2 of those hours will be driving to Coachella. Raul speeds off back to the hotel.

* * *

A hectic and frantic Montage of Amanda, Madi, Bryana and Lauren getting ready. Raul just stands in a corning watches the girls work diligently, unaware of the years of practice put in for this moment. Bryana calls in help from celebrity hair stylist to help them as they get ready. Raul says they look amazing, holds the doors for them as they make their to his car.

Madi asks how much time they have left, and Amanda says 30 minutes. As they all pile into the car, Bryana says to step on it. Raul says to cool it as they can literally see the entrance to Coachella. However the traffic isn’t moving at all. Madi, Lauren, Bryana, and Amanda step out the car. And start walking to Coachella.

* * *

At the Coachella Entrance Tent, security asks to see their tickets and they all take out their phones and show him. The Security Guard lets them through and the girls scream in excitement. Bryana and Amanda thanks Lauren for finding their purses. The announcer at Coachella welcomes everyone and the first artists of the night, Doja Cat and Jelly Roll. Lauren takes out her phone and begins live streaming. She tells everyone that they made it to Coachella with all of their belongings. She explains that Madi lost her phone at bar at the Tanologist festival a couple days ago and she got it back.

Madi stops Lauren and tells her to enjoy Coachella. Lauren says she just got a bunch of new followers. Madi recognized some of the names leaving comments and she starts to connect the dots. Madi accuses Lauren took her purse as a stunt to get herself more followers. She says she doesn’t know what she’s taking about and she ends the livestream. Bryana and Amanda say that it’s odd that Lauren is the only one that’s belongings wasn’t taken and that she was gone while Madi was out too.

Lauren asks why would she do that, like they are her only best friends... Madi explains that she’s losing followers because she’s getting older, less irrelevant. People aren’t liking her content. However, Madi, Bryana, and Amanda are still on the rise. She says that doesn’t prove anything. Madi then takes out her nail that fell off while she was fleeing from her at the rental house. Lauren starts to stumbles on her own words and chokes up as she regretfully admits to the crime in order to get more followers.

She planned to return everyone’s be the savior and find everyone’s phone. Lauren begins to shuffle away. Raul finds security and tells them she stole the purses. The police arrest her and take her away. Madi thanks Raul and invites him to stay and party with them. Raul, Madi, Amanda, and Bryana all record each other partying at Coachella.

* * *

A week later, after the Coachella hype has settled down, Madi is sitting in her room, recording a vlog for Coachella Weekend, with Raul sitting next to her. Madi explains how her friend took her phone as a stunt to gain more followers. Madi then explains that how she met Raul, the stranger who helped her all weekend. Madi says to thank him, She has set up a fundraiser for Raul’s daughter. Madi stops the recording.

Raul begins tearing up. Raul hugs Madi and thanks her, and Madi thanks him. Raul begins recording his fundraising video, Raul says any amount helps, but they don’t need to donate. Madi finishes the video by thanking her viewer for watching and Raul and Maid thanking each other. They switch to the fundraiser website and see that the fundraiser has over $200,000 dollars, surpassing the initial $10,000 goal. Raul calls his wife and tells her that they have money for their daughter’s treatment.