Yularan Relationships

I thought for a few seconds if I could find a catchy, edgy heading to give this post. But almost instantly swatted that idea away, because the subject matter of this particular post is so foten mired in mystery and unnecessary guessing-games that I thought I'd do you a favour and be direct for once.
Or, at least, as direct as I can be.

"Yulara" is the name of the 'town' I live in here in my Desert Exile. The term "town" should be used loosely, because this place ONLY resembles a town in its physical appearance. For all meaningful intents and purposes, it is not a town at all.
All of that will be explained in my upcoming essay "Yulara: Corporate Paradise", so I will say, just for now:
Yulara is not a real town, it is a corporate-controlled resort. The residents here are not citizens, or even civilians. So few places on Earth can have their populations divided so cleanly between only two classes: worker and visitor. But that is the way it is here in Yulara. You'll be enlightened soon enough, rest assured.

For now, I want to tell you a bit about human relationships here.
Firstly, know that this is one place in the world where there are absolutely NO secrets. It is a community, and it is a tight-knit one - not because all are close and will defend each other, but because he knows him, who knows her, who knows that guy, who knows this person, and everyone is connected by far less than the customary 6 degrees of separation.
And everyone knows it, too. It's not a secret. ;)

the demographs are as follows:
Yulara is arguably the homosexual capital of the world. Not in sheer numbers, no - that would be Sydney or San Francisco (from what I've seen in the former, and what I've heard about the latter). But in "per capita" terms, this is Gay-Town. Alice Springs is the main competitor, I hear, and I would not be surprised!
The other side of dempgraphs is the background of the people - this is no more relevant than anywhere else in the world, as Yulara is a microcosm to the extreme - we've got people here from all sorts of countries. All with their own reasons to come, and most eventually subscribing to the same existence not long after arriving.

So, demographs aside, I can tell you that there are only TWO kinds of relationships here in Yulara. they would best be described in meat-packing and agricultural terms, and those terms would be "import" and "home-grown". Be warned here and now, "Import" does not refer to the nationality or background of the people involved. Nor does "Home-Grown". I utilise these terms for their functional value - "Import" means it has come from outside. "Home-grown" means it has been born and fostered in the zone.
"Imports" generally consist of people who have arrived here, as a couple, and move in together, as a couple, and play house together, as a happy little couple. Generally these people are headed for one of two destinies: 1) will get married because they've been together so long (and can't do better), 2) will split up if and when reality hits, and one decides to stay and that other wants the hell OUT! I generalise, yes, but this is, after all, generally speaking.

Homebakes are almost exclusively the product of a drunken night out at one of the two watering holes - The Rez or the Outie. Regardless of which setting, the outcome is always the same.

Just as there are no Secrets in Yulara, there are also no "One-Night Stands" here. And this is because there are no secrets.
Being as succinct as possible: boy meets girl, boy and girl get drunk off their faces, boy and girl screw each other in a stupor. One wakes up in the other's bed the next morning (really early!) and takes the walk of shame back to their place. The other, already being in their hovel, proceeds to tell everyone and anyone they can about it, and by 10am that morning after, the whole town knows (unless if you happen to be out of town that weekend).
What the guy (admittedly) may have wished to be a one-night stand becomes common knowledge all over, and it usually takes no more than one solid day of teasing and taunting from everyone else before both parties to the fling have made up their minds that they are in a relationship. And BANG! there goes your one-night stand of drunken fun!
Only exempting the Red-Lights of the area, all people in this Home-Grown situation end up in a relationship like this. It may only last a few days, but it is officially on the public opinion-record as "in a relationship". There is no need for Facebook's "relationship status" feature here, as everyone else decides for you. The members of relationships that last for only a short time almost always jump right back into the same pool they just swam in, and end up doing it all over again. And after three or four in rapid succession, one gets to earn the title of a Red Light.

I have to be honest with you - Thinking normally, I cannot fathom how some of the relationships around here last. I am sure that some, a small percentage, are deep and meaningful, we'll-be-together-forever love matches. Sure. Why not? But the rest are matters of convenience and/or comfort. Convenience can be a case of a foreign national seeking PR or Visa status, or just because their last partner kicked them out, and they would quite literally have nowhere to live.
Comfort is the deadlier type, which discloses that the parties to the relationship haven't really put any thought into their lives, their futures, or even their pasts at all, and merely exist from day to day. Being with someone else, having the occasional physical contact, can take the edge off of that (believe me, I know from hard experience!). But it is all just because it is more comfortable.

Once in a blue moon you will come across a third type of relationship - the Perpetual Single. This certainly describes me. It also describes one or two others I know of, but I'm sure their reasons are different to mine.

You see, I play the game differently to other men. I don't drink, and I don't smoke. Instantly that wipes out two very lucrative ways of interacting with other people.
My personal interests are, by my own assessment, of a higher calibre than the majority, and that means I cannot maintain conversations with any interest, and I have difficulty feigning it, too.
Also, I've been told by one or two people whom I thought were close to me here, that my personality is such that it is very difficult to attract others to me. Apparently I am non-serious, or too light-hearted, or perhaps boring, or whatever the fuck you want to say about me. At differing times of men and womens' hormonal cycles, and depending on whichever prevailing thought exists in their minds, I am a good friend or just an idiot.
Alas, this part gets vague, even for me, here. I can admit that I know I seem arrogant or the like sometimes, and I can certainly admit that I am liable to misread either the situation or my role in it. But in the end, Hell really is just Other People.

The Perpetual Single has made the choice to be single, and stays that way actively. The original reason/s may be forced upon you, but you end up facing reality soon enough. Before too long, you realise the nature of all Relationships here - the Imports and the HomeGrowns - and you see that things tend to STICK really, really badly together. People Stick to others, and relationships almost always form (in the Home-Grown cases) because outside pressure and internal weakness has allowed two people to stick to each other.

It is actually a sad state of affairs, but isn't it always?

Yularan Relationships represent just another area of life here in the Corporate Paradise whereby freedom and liberty are squandered and squashed, and not by any outside, 1984 Big Brother entity at all. It's just the aura of the place.

Happily single, thought lacking physical attachment for the carnal outcomes,

From The Tominator.