Pearl Lotus
"Sure, I love living at the Pearl Lotus! Where else would I want to live, the desert?"
Demographics
At the moment, all of the workers and staff members at the PearlLotus are human (all hiring decisions go through the main company, and at this point the main company is still xenophobic). At first, all the people in the Desert Lotus ranged in age between sixteen and forty, as this is the general age of working people, but it's been about five years and children are being born on the planet.
Most of the population is split between jobs such as housekeeping, food preperation, cleaning, and discreet services. As assumed, discreet services pays the most, but that's only because a lot of the people give tips there when they don't for cleaning, food, etc.
Government
The Pearl Lotus is run like an old mining town on Earth. The company rents you your housing, sells you your food, and gives you any loans you might need. All the paperwork is done through the company as well, thought there is starting to be underground "doctors" and "nurses" since depending on a community member is less expensive than paying the company.
Defences
The defenses of the Pearl Lotus are much more than the average person would expect. There are, of course, several staff members that have passed proficiency courses in shooting and martial arts, but in addition to them there are:
- guns on the rooftops (this is to prevent pirates from landing and looking to take either valuables or hostages).
- cameras in almost every location possible (to make sure of each guest's safety [and some people say to take evidence for blackmailing].
Industry & Trade
All industry and trade are done for profit, and in this case, benefit the hotel. The trade is "wellness" and "peace of mind" for those coming in, and they give universal credits for this (along with all the other things they'll charge to their account during their week-long stay).
Infrastructure
The Peral Lotus is the only building that can be seen in the Pearl Desert (which is part of the attraction.
The building itself is massive, with 24 "petals" which are actually pods of rooms [each petal has 50 rooms, so there's a total of 1,200 rooms]. Underneath the petals are green leaves that have special services in them, and then under the white dunes of sand a person can find all the buildings that allow for the decadence in the upper areas to take place (this is where the cooking for room service is done, laundry is done, etc.).
The middle steam (while not found in a normal lotus flower) is here since that's where the service areas are (restaurants, etc.) but there's a part of the elevator that's for guests while another part is for staff only.
Districts
Each of the petals is known as a pod, however the districts that actually support the city are deep underground and spread out over a part of the desert that guests or out of town visitors would have no idea exists (similar to how lotus roots are in the wild, much longer than would be expected by a flower in a pond).
The districts are also where people live - the life of the Lotus - it's said by those who've traveled there and "lowered" themselves to dip into the non-hotel world.
The "roots" of the Lotus spread deep, vertically and horizontally. While these were, at first, given out to service staff and workers as "thank you" items (especially those higher up staff members), in the beginning there was a slight class system to the floors, but at this point people live where they want to live (and where they can afford to).
Assets
The asset of the hotel are what's recorded on record (the assets of the people living there are whatever they could sneak in while moving to the world and whatever the housekeeping services are able to find after a guest has left.
History
The Pearl Lotus was population with 4,450 human staff members in its first year. These people were housed underground, in the "ball roots" of the Lotus hotel.
All of these people signed a lifetime agreement to live, work, and stay on at the Pearl Lotus. For the most part, the company took the time to recruit people who were looking to make a name for themselves (those offering services + cooking), as well as people who were looking for safety from debts, exes, or other problems.
All the people who came to the Pearl Lotus were given the "option" of allowing their bodies to be modified to better help them in their jobs. For cleaners, their bodies (depending what they ate) could hold and discrete cleaning chemicals. For cooks, they were able to request extra limbs, fingers, or heat sensing so they could know the exact temperature of ovens/grills, etc. Those signing on to offer individual pleasures usually came with their own body modifications, but several chose to add what they thought would be best (in at least one case, it was a chameleon coding that would help in surprising people - for another, it was choosing to have their hair strong enough, and soft enough, to be used as restraint).
For now the White Lotus is seen as running well, but there are a few rumblings under the surface. The company would like to remove these people (as per contract), but in some cases it's hard to find them.
Points of interest
The best point of interest is the Pearl Desert itself. While there are other deserts "nearby" which are different colors, for the moment the only hotel that the company has is located in the Pearl Desert (however, there are plans for other hotels in the works, as soon as some of the wrinkles from this hotel are ironed out).
For now, the Pearl Lotus itself is seen as a point of interest (which the architecture at a delicate balance between art and function), the Pearl Desert is classified as a point of interest at three different times (when both moons are in the sky, when one moon is in the sky, and when neither moon is in the sky).
Tourism
The Pearl Lotus is built exclusively for tourism. This is sold to be an area where one can meditate, be at peace with the universe, and still be close enough to the center hub of transportation in the area.
Things to do are mostly service-based:
- Yoga
- Massage
- Meditation
- Desert tour
- Sound therapy
- Aroma therapy
- etc.
Architecture
A lot of the material used for building the Lotus is what's called "general goop." These are the building blocks when building off Earth (which is everyone these days). The science behind it is that the enzymes react to the atmosphere it senses, in addition to whatever weather and climate information is programmed in (such as long winters, short summers, etc.). This allows growth of materials that are strong against wind, sunlight, water, etc. and which don't need to be individually hauled in.
After the basic blocks of the building are created and there is a confirmation that the building is "air locked" (meaning there are no holes for the air to escape from), several robots enter the closed building and build up an atmosphere that is best for oxygen breathers.
After the atmosphere is put up, human interior decorators enter the place and start decorating with furniture, paint, greenery, etc. The coloring of the area matches well with the outside Pearl Desert during the day, but at night the rooms and leaves swing into a softly glowing white and green pastel.
The petals are rooms, leaving the leaves and the inner stem as the best place for having group sessions or even individual sessions (sound therapy, etc.). The leaves have walkways between them even though the petals do not have many connecting rooms.
The stem is split in twain, with one half only being used by guests and the other half being used by staff members to deliver food, etc. to the guest rooms.
Geography
There's no access to fresh water, lakes, or seas (at least, that the people in the Lotus know of). The terrain itself has ever-shifting sand dunes, all of them gleaming white, so navigation is hard in the desert.
There are other deserts in the area, but none of them can be seen by any place in the Lotus. This is what makes the area desirable, the infinity pool of desert that calmingly surrounds a person.
The planet has two moons, and the most booked time at the hotel wavers between either both moons out at the same time or when both moons are not in the sky (and people can see the sands glow).
Natural Resources
The Pearl Desert doesn't have any natural resources to use. If a person was to be contrary, they would say that its silence, calming, and the whole atmosphere can be considered natural resources. However, this is the why the planet was considered "pretty, but a loss" for most people looking to mine or take resources from the planet.
Founding Date
3521
Population
4,521 permanent citizens, not including upper management.
Location under
Vehicles Present
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