Chapter One: The Fruit of Weary Gardens

General Summary

Monday, January 25th, 2162.

The citizens of Fuyao Beimei knew that today would be the day where Wade Bescript begin filming his The Long Take documentary for Snippets. Most treated it like a normal day, but our heros were unable to.
James Davis had been tasked with creating an itinerary for the Snippets reporters to follow, and in the morning he let Nuan Chung know that he intended to guide them himself. Ms. Chung reminded him that he was also tasked to give Pete Deyes a tour of the glass research facilities and production of the glass for Virgin Galactic's orders for their current space station project. James decided to delegate that task to Wei Teng.
Sebastian Thompson started his morning having a one on one meeting with Tao Lin, a rare occurance. Mr. Lin asked Sebastian to lead Wade around and make sure the Snippets team only received the best perception of Fuyao Beimei. Sebastian assured him that this would happen.
Wei received an email from Ms.Chung changing his agenda--instead of continuing his development of the window technology ordered by Virgin Galactic, he was to chaperone Mr. Deyes around the facilities. Annoyed, Wei checked in with James about the decision, and James admitted to a scheduling conflict preventing him from leading Pete Deyes around himself. Wei begrudgingly accepted the interruption to his research.
Sebastian found out through Ms. Chung that James was in charge of the itinerary and would be going along as well. The two met each other in the front of the gates, and Sebastian reiterated Mr. Lin's preference. After making sure the patrolling tanks were inconspicuous, James and Sebastian greeted Wade with his team Lily Bjorklund and John Echols at the border. Early on in the day James tried to show off Fuyao Beimei, subtly hinting at the downfalls of the corporate serfdom. At the same time, Sebastian tried his best to make sure that the reporters did not know the ruthless underbelly of the nation, sometimes using his intimidating presence on his fellow citizens. This did not go according to plan when he confronted Raymond Barnes, who was too jaded (or possibly too drunk) to care. What could have easily become an altercation was smoothed out when James promised Raymond a drink sometime in the future.
Meanwhile, Wei and Mr. Deyes were able to get along thanks to the aid of an earpiece translator and a mutual appreciation of physics. Throughout a day of touring the facilities and crunching through the research results, Wei was thoroughly impressed with Mr. Deyes. At the end of the day, Mr. Deyes asked if Wei could show him where to get a drink, and a Wei was happy to direct him to Upper Deck Tavern.
At the end of a long day with two contrary hosts, James ended the schedule at The Liquid Gem while Sebastian tried to observe from afar. The Snippets team noticed and James decided to talk to Sebastian. The two friends discussed burying the hatchet of Sebastian helping to remove James from his previous position within Fuyao. James also admitted he was hoping to know Lily a little bit better. Sebastian then trusted James with the team for the rest of that night. As Sebastian left, John asked James to show them the more humble watering hole. With that James led the team to Upper Deck as well.
Raymond was found at his usual spot at the bar that night as the Snippets team sat down in a booth drinking the local beer. James took the opportunity to introduce Raymond to Wade and John as he and Lily left together in order to enjoy their evening elsewhere. Raymond, encouraged by a double pour of the best scotch available at the bar, told the sad tale of how his wife was killed by the poor construction of some the production facilities in the factory. This soon evolved into his usual ramble on conspiracy theories. Wei and Pete Deyes, at another table, paid no mind to the strange scene and instead spoke to each other. Wei admitted to his passion of space, but understood that in Fuyao Beimei, his work would be the closest he would get. Pete seemed sympathetic to his plight. After some time, everyone remaining left Upper Deck on their own except for Raymond, who was walked back by John. John took the opportunity to ask Raymond where one could get super glue to help maintain his recording equipment, and Raymond led him to a contact to the black market of Fuyao, before returning home and wondering when he'd have the energy to go out hunting again.
The next day, Sebastian had his employees observe the day that Wade and his team was promised to be able to have free reign to shoot around Fuyao. Nothing damning was discovered from what was observed, just a bunch of foreigners with a camera.
The next morning was to be the final day of filming, and everyone w in their offices, thinking things were particularly normal. Raymond was ready to do a repair on the assembly line in the main factory. As he approached, the factory exploded violently, with smoke and flames, and the injured pouring out. James, Sebastian and Wei felt the rumble in their respective offices, uncertain as to what to make of it.
It's now Wednesday, January 27th, 2162, at 9:41 am Eastern Standard Time.