Fragments: Echoes

Fragments: Echoes

Another story fragment that has gone nowhere.

Echoes was intended to be a high-end lounge using a unique shtick; using sound node technology, the club duplicated the effect in parties where a gap in the conversation would allow a single person's sentence to be heard clearly by all. Instead of the indistinct crowd murmur common to most clubs, in Echoes random patrons would be heard clearly for a moment by everyone as the nodes shifted around. Echoes was intended to be a place where the wealthy and beautiful; could be heard as well as seen.

Echoes was never as popular as intended; it ran up against one of the last vestiges of privacy in society; while people liked being seen in public, they tended to want their conversations, especially with dates, to be unheard by others. People tended to be self-conscious in Echoes, their conversations stilted and awkward. And uncomfortable patrons is a death knell for a club

And then there was the night everyone heard "I killed her last night; beat her head in."

There was a long silence in the club after that.