Love it, Lock it, Leave it

A Virtual Tour of the Grounds at La Máquina, featuring a Never-Before-Seen Last Look at Velocity Leung-Taylor

Many grains of sand have accumulated in the walk-in closet, despite the lack of doors or windows. Other than that, everything is just like Before: dozens of shoes (size 5.5) line the shelves, and a rainbow rack of clothes snakes around the thick black wall-to-wall carpeting.

But in the toe of every stiletto, there are small golden pools where sand has filled in the slight impressions caused, once upon a time, by pedicured toes. The sand Now is far finer than it used to be — more like dust than the beach. It is also appears more sparkly, but this is just due to the molecular changes in air composition, which cause the light to refract differently. Every fold and crease in every dress and skirt is thrown into relief by a delicate outline of sand.

The clothes here are exclusively in the late imperial retro-inspired “Y3K” style, which is why they’ve survived irradiation. Green latex full-body suits, aluminum-plated “combat”-style heeled boots, diamond-link chainmail: the aesthetic favored by the upper class in the immediately pre-impact period was strangely prescient in that it emphasized non-organic, non-protein-based, purely synthetic materials, and silhouettes informed by military and performance-wear.

Let’s zoom out and change perspective. From above, we see a complex of white-walled compounds built in the cyber-Mission epoch. Sand eddies in whorls in the roofless corridors, blown East from the coast. The honeycomb of interior chambers in the northwest, which functioned as Velocity Leung-Taylor’s private quarters, accessible only through a network of underground tunnels, are the only rooms of La Máquina still perfectly preserved. A 600 degree breeze plays over the remains of a marble fountain.

But in the walk-in closet, or Wardrobe Room, as Velocity called it, all is still, and dark, and cool. Except for the sand.

* * *

50 feet directly below the Wardrobe Room, there’s another chamber: this one decorated in light, organic creams. The fission-powered bulbs installed along the perimeter are still glowing. They are on the naturalistic “Evening / 4 / Forest” setting, giving the impression of sunlight slanting down through west-facing foliage at the tail end of a long, 24-hour day. Light and shadow play gently over the pale green “grapes” clustered artfully to conceal the ventilation and nutrition mechanisms that plug into the airtight synthetic-diamond casing cocooning the bed in the center of the room.

Anna “Velocity” Leung-Taylor wears a translucent nightgown through which the outlines of the tubing are visible. Also visible is the brand name on #hercalvins – a wardrobe choice for which, it was rumored, following the 7-page feature spread in Tekhné Magazine documenting her final Last Night party, Calvin Klein paid a pretty premium. Although the hair in the delicate braids piled on her head has long turned gray, she is otherwise just as she was when she last lay down to sleep: thirty-three years old, tiny, trim, in good shape, having just completed a choreography-intensive “End of the World” concert tour through the major capitals of every continent, culminating in Antarctica. The most expensive of her robotic huskies, Temperature, dozes at her bare feet. Around her neck rests the “apocalypse-proof” heart-shaped locket that was the best-selling merch item on tour. There is rapid movement behind her lightly powdered eyelids.

Let’s zoom in and change perspective. Behind these eyelids, a 168-hour memory-movie plays. It was executive-produced and edited by Velocity’s friend, ex-lover, and frequent collaborator, filmmaker Juno Davies, and includes concert footage, some TV-interviews, as well as, mostly, clips from the camera rolls of Velocity and her inner circle.

None of the aforementioned footage has been made publicly available –– until now. Let’s take a look.

* * *

“Okay okay, we’re in the car…. Okay cool. Yes. Love the sound system. We’re rolling. We’re driving. (sneeze). Oh my god sorry. I have allergies. I used to never have allergies!?! Antarctica has way too much pollen. Okay so, we’re driving to the studioooo… This is crazy, it’s my final concert. This is exciting! But also sad. Here we have Freddie, and Dana – Freddie, say hi to the camera!”

A view of the black leather interior of a luxury car is obscured by a person with long blonde hair leaning in to the lens.

“What’s up, camera.”

“Show your bling.”

Freddie flashes a steel-blue heart on a heavy chain.

“Lockets R Forever, baby.” He tucks it back under his t-shirt.

“That’s right, Lockets R Forever. Literally these will last forever. What’d you put in yours?”

“I already told you.”

“Freddie come on, say it again for the camera.”

“Dude, no. So you can put this in the campaign for the merch? It’s private.”

“Noooo come onnnnnn, this isn’t going anywhere, we already shot the ads. This is just for my memory movie. So I can remember you when I wake up, okay??”

“Fine. What I put in the Forever Locket is a picture of my dog, and one of his hairs, for cloning. My real, live dog, Sam, that I had as a kid. Before robodogs. Got all that?”

“Hahahahaha. That’s so funny for some reason. I know you already told me that but it’s still funny. You can keep anything in the world forever and you choose a pic of your dog.”

“And a hair! For cloning!”

“Right. Okay. So whatever you put in the locket is pretty much guaranteed to last forever, no matter what happens, nuclear war, whatever. Apocalypse-proof, baby. Because of the state-of-the-art titanium alloy engineered exclusively for my End-of-The-World concert merch line. Which goes along with the breakout single from this album, 'Locket.' I’m explaining all this for posterity.”

“I thought you said no one was gonna see this.”

“They’re not!!! I’m gonna be posterity, okay??”

“Whatever. What did you put in your locket?”

“Not telling.” The camera points down at the floor and zooms in on black combat boots, size 5.5. “My shoes are cool, right? They have the titanium-alloy tips.”

“Okay, whatever.”

“Can you turn up the sound, Dana? In the memory movie, I think it would be cool for some of my own music to be playing in the background. And then Juno can edit it so it transitions into me singing the same song at a concert. Right?”

“Yeah umm, one sec.”

Bubbly pop music begins to pulse through the car: “Love it // lock it // leave it…”

* * *

Let’s briefly change perspective:

Several miles off an unnamed coast, a necklace drifts on the ocean floor. It’s caught on a rare growth of coral — one of the last in this area of the Pacific. There’s other detritus, other pieces of metal, in various states of oxidation, barely recognizable. But this necklace looks factory-fresh: gleaming, pink-ish (this is the Rose Gold model). It catches a beam of light – and in the bevelled surface of the perfectly heart-shaped charm are briefly reflected the heaps and heaps of trash that are ubiquitous here: plastic bottles, disposable surgical masks, electronics.

* * *

In the ruins of a warehouse in southern China, thousands of lockets are piled by color: Rose Gold, Moonlight Blue, Recycle Green. The wooden crates that once housed them were irradiated long ago, but the lockets are still there.

* * *

A complicated light show simulates the Aurora Borealis above the crowd.

“Hi there, Antarctic City!!!” Velocity screams. “I’m so, so honored to be here. As most of you probably know, this is a very, very special night for me. It’s not just my last concert on this tour — it’s my Last Night, ever!”

Velocity can barely see her fans, and neither can the camera. The crowd is visible only as a moving mass, shifting constantly before her eyes, like one big organism, rippling sometimes, this way and that, in response to the song.

“After this, I’m headed straight home to Cali. Straight to bed, you might say!”

A collective sigh from the crowd.

“I wish I could invite you all back to La Máquina with me for my goodbye party … but you’ll be able to tune in to Tekhné’s livestream of the event if you scan that little code on your wristbands. And you know I’ll never forget you guys…I’ll be dreaming of you… literally! Because my good friend Juno — hey girl!!! — is cutting footage from this concert into my memory movie as we speak!!!”

A closeup on Velocity’s face as the crowd goes wild. Real tears spill over the rhinestones dotting the area under her eyes.

“I’m so blessed to have had such an amazing life so far. But it’s time to hit pause, hit the sheets, take a nap, before the world starts totally sucking. I’m soooooo excited for what the future will hold. And I hope to see all of you there — on the other side — wearing our apo-proof Forever Lockets – when I wake up!!! But first: one last song…. Here’s 'Locket'...”

Velocity does a pirouette on her titanium-tipped combat boots.

“Love it // lock it // leave it” she whispers softly into the mic, as the music starts. “Because tonight I’m saying good-bye // Yeah tonight we’re saying good-bye.”