Snippets into the Lives of the Characters

Written by CoolG1319

Audio Call

Bwooom. Bwooom. Bwooom. Andrea's wristwatch flashes from neon purple to yellow. Purple to yellow. Purple to yellow.
"Come on, pick up," Andrea grumbles impatiently.
Bwooom. Bwooom. Boop! The wristwatch finally turns green.
Finally! "Hey Jase! How you doing?"
There's a brief silence on the other end before he responds, "Hey Drea. I'm alright, I guess."
Upon hearing his sad tone, Andrea sighs and asks, "So, how long has Dad been out on business this time?"
"Two weeks now."
Silence fell once more on the other end. Jason then let out a loud, frustrated grunt, causing Andrea to jump, and a faint bump was heard.
"I HATE THIS," the kid angrily yelled.
"Jase..."
"Every damn day—"
"Language."
"Whatever! Every damn day, Dad has to go out for 'business stuff' and promises to be back 'soon'. And every damn time, his 'soon' stretches for fucking days! He never answers our calls, never texts us to see how we're doing and always leaves us with that dumb babysitter!"
Andrea stifles a chuckle. "Hey, come on! Clarissa isn't that bad."
A second of silence passes on the other end before Jason blurts, "Really?? Are we talking about the same AI?? She's always like 'Oooh, are you okay? Oooh, you seem upset. Oooh, you wanna talk about your feeeliiiings?' Like, who the hell do you think you are? My therapist?! Just shut up."
More silence. Andrea then hears quiet sobbing on the receiving end.
"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay, buddy, it's okay," she says softly.
"No, it's not." The boy's voice is filled with tears. "I'm so sick of this bullshit..."
Greatly upset by her brother's sadness, Andrea sighs deeply and tries to comfort him.
"I know it's been harder dealing with Dad's absence since I left—"
"YOU THINK??!"
"Let me finish, okay?"
Silence on the opposite end.
"Like I said, I know it's been harder to deal with Dad's absence since I moved out. Well, that and looking after Indie. But remember: Dad's working his butt off every single day to provide for us and afford our schooling. He doesn't spend pretty much all his time away from home for no good reason."
Jason scoffed and grumbled, "It's his fault anyway. He agreed to that bitch's offer and look where that's gotten him! Speaking of her, she just left another voice message asking for money."
Bling! The wristwatch turns blue. Andrea taps it and a notification is projected, showing the voice message sent by Jason. She hits 'play' and an all-too-familiar grating, condescending and pompous voice rings out.
I'm going to keep this short because I'm starting to get sick of reminding you. As you already know, my Innovations team has created a new model of a face-altering scanner that's 60% more effective and 78% less painful than those sold by competitors. I've discussed this with my managers and we've given the green light to begin manufacturing. However, doing so isn't very cheap. She breathed and continued, but in her disgustingly sweet voice. So if you could oh-so kindly wire me some 3.5 million dollars, that would be wonderful. Toodles!
The projection retracts back into the wristwatch, which returns to green, and Andrea shakes her head, mumbling, "Typical."
"I know, right? I wish Dad would just get rid of that damn snake."
"Same here, buddy. But at least she doesn't live with us anymore."
"I guess..."
The following silence is long and awkward, only periodically broken by Jason's sniffling. Andrea exhales and leans back on the wall of her pod. Suddenly, an idea sparks. She sharply sits upright and speaks into the watch.
"Hey, Jase, tell you what."
"What?"
"Saturday's a free day, so I'll come over for a lil visit." She grins as she pictures her brother's face light up. "And as a special treat, I'll take you guys to—"
"Neo-Dragon Delights," Jason excitedly cuts in.
"Hah! That right!" Andrea can practically hear her brother's smile.
"Ooh! Ooh! I wanna come!"
"Indie, what are you—"
"Pweeeeeease, Drea?"
Andrea laughs as she listens to her siblings' scuffle on the other end. Indigo is using every "pwease" she possibly had to convince Andrea to take her along, while Jason tries holding her off the call, clearly not succeeding. After close to a minute of this, Andrea stops laughing and says, "Of course, you can come Indie!"
The five-year-old's sweet voice rings out, ecstatic, "Yaaay! This is gonna be the best Satuwday evur!!"
"Well, that settles it. Talk to ya later, Jase."
"Bye, Drea," he says happily.
Booboop. The call ends and her wristwatch fades back to neon purple.

Late Night Street Art

Drip. Drip. Drip. The rhythmic pattern of water trickling from the nearby awning creates a soothing tune that captivates his senses, enabling him to concentrate fully. The subtle aroma of rain gently envelops his mind, dispelling any lingering distractions and allowing mental clarity.
The mysterious individual cloaked in all black gazes at his canvas, a simple concrete wall, his favourite, and puts on a black face mask. He taps his wristwatch and a holographic menu materializes, displaying a dazzling array of spray cans in various shapes, sizes, and colours. The enigmatic figure chooses two cans - both tall and cylindrical, with black bodies adorned with a striking white lightning symbol. However, one of the cans is equipped with small boosters at the base. The figure propels it to the top of the wall and deftly manipulates its movements and spraying using a special set of contact lenses. As the can begins to spray a thin white outline on the wall, the figure takes the other can and continues the outline from the wall's base.
After a few minutes, the person examines the completed outline, which isn't of a discernable shape, yet, and nods in approval. He then puts away the spray cans and chooses two shorter, rounder cans adorned with sky-blue lightning symbols, one of which has boosters. He repeats the same process until the outcome is a mass of sky-blue paint filling the outlined shape - the backdrop, as he likes to call it.
The mysterious artist retrieves the cans once more and selects pairs of vibrant red, green, pink, tan, purple, orange and yellow spray cans. With a swift motion, the artist sends the boosted cans soaring into the air before commencing work. Starting with slow, fluid movements, the artist covers about half of the backdrop with a soothing tan colour. Then, a bold, vibrant red streak is carefully applied across the top, accompanied by delicate orange streaks. The lower half is adorned with bright green, accented with touches of purple and pink. It partially covers the bottom half of the tan-coloured portion. Using the flying yellow can, the artist skillfully sprays a quarter of a circle in the upper right corner of the backdrop, under the red streak. Lowering the cans to the ground, the artist then selects a taller, slender can adorned with a striking black lightning pattern and proceeds to draw thin black lines on various parts of the tan-coloured portion.
The artist takes a step back to admire the result, which he affectionately refers to as "the flat piece." He returns the cans to their designated spots on the menu and selects a set of spray cans with gradient, brightening and darkening effects. With a sense of anticipation, he begins to work his magic. Starting with the boosted gradient cans, he expertly applies the gradient effect to the orange streaks, skillfully blending them into the rich red. Moving on to the flying brightening and darkening spray cans, the artist meticulously adds layers of shading and lighting to different sections of the piece, focusing intently on enhancing the red, yellow, and green elements.
After nearly half an hour, the artist steps back for the final time, pulls his face mask down, and gazes at his work - his final piece. Another great job done. Satisfied, he puts all the cans away and selects a large circular device, which he places on the bottom right of the final piece. He activates it by pushing a button at its center. A small cloud of white and neon blue paint erupts from the device, which is then removed, leaving behind a blot of white with a neon blue "B" - the artist's signature. The device is returned to its place, the menu is closed, and, hands in his pocket, the mysterious artist struts away, disappearing into the night.

---

The next day, Brandon is walking by a few stores, idly listening to rap music, when he comes across a huge crowd gathered around and taking photos of the wall of a building. He joins the crowd and makes his way to the very front to look at Cope Blue's latest artwork.
The painting depicts a tan-skinned woman with stunning, flowing red hair adorned with bright orange streaks. She is seen from the side, covering her bare chest with her arms and gazing away from the onlookers. Her hair transitions to a deep blue at the bottom and gradually achieves a brighter shade, seamlessly merging into a green skirt that fades into a picturesque grassy green field sprinkled with vibrant purple and pink flowers. In the top right corner of the canvas, a radiant yellow sun casts its rays, illuminating the entire scene.
As Brandon stares at the image, the crowd is filled with excitement.
"This has to be my favourite work of his!"
"Wonder what the symbolism of this one is."
"Dude...this is so sick!"
"I am def gonna post this on my page!"
"Gosh, Cope Blue is amazing."
With a light smirk, Brandon takes in the admiration before slipping away from the gathering and strolling down the street until he disappears from view.