STUDY: Immersion

ACT ONE (1224)

SCENE ONE: (139)

You stand in front of a mirror and you’re changed. I’m assuming we’re in a VR machine? You catch a glimpse of your real physical body.

SCENE TWO: (689)

Quy is watching Galactic ships park into Longevity’s space station, spilling out tourists. They’re white people obviously. She reflects on her time on Prime where she went to school. Second Uncle rings her up and tells her he needs her help back in the restaurant. They need her because she studied with white people?

SCENE THREE: (396)

You have breakfast. Your immerser tells you the weird liquid is coffee. Your husband apologizes for it being strong. You can’t read his face. Galen - husband - is using a white person avatar. You are the alien race and you work hard to be like them. You have metaphors for orchid, lotus flower and sugar cane fields.

ACT TWO (1380)

SCENE FOUR: (1380)

Second uncle insisted Quy get her immerser, but it’s missing. They jump on a family conference to see who has it. They say Tam took it. Tam had both immersers. She was downstairs in the lower floors. She had taken apart something. She’s eating now. She tells her not to take her stuff. But really, she didn’t care. She didn’t like wearing the immerser. Tam is good at logistics. and that’s what makes her invaluable on the station. Quy asks Tam how her work is going. She’s trying to break open the immerser and hack it. She’s wondering why the logic isn’t the same as Artificial Literature Writer. Cultural norms like “forging own path” and “fighting aliens for possession”. The Immerser turns you into someone else with some lattice thing. Tourists from Galacitic wore them to get around when they travelled. Tam wants to take it apart so that we’re not culturally bound to Galacitc.

ACT THREE (1513)

SCENE FIVE: (609)

You go to the restaurant. The immerser translates stuff for you. Tells you about dishes. Galen is ahead and you think about your talk with him about obsequiousness and how Galactic rose up against Old Earth. You see two young woman using cheap avatars eating. Galen calls for you. Agnes. You can barely remember your Galactic name. You remember your Asian name.

SCENE SIX: (904)

Quy is with Second Uncle to interview…. Galen and Agnes (da da dum). Quy notices that something is wrong. Galen and Second Uncle are haggling and negotiating for the big banquet for their fifth anniversary and all Quy can do is observe Agnes. Something was wrong. Quy goes up to the woman to tell her she’s not alone and that she has to take it off.

ACT FOUR (385)

SCENE SEVEN: (385)

Agnes remembers that he put on the immerser to please her husband and now she doesn’t even remember how to take it off anymore. she’s worn it for so long.

ACT FIVE (870)

SCENE EIGHT: (341)

Quy talks to Galen and Galen admits defeats. She’s worn it for so long now. They tried to take her to doctors and taking it off would be too much of a shock. So now she’s stuck. Galen has been trying to bring her back and was hoping this feast do it.

SCENE NINE: (529)

Agnes breaks away from Galen to follow Quy and Second Uncle. She sees Tam with her attempts to destroy the immerser. But she thinks it’s impossible, Because you need to be born in Galactic mindset to understand the culture, that you can reduce an entire culture to an algorithm. Or unless you’ve been drugging yourself so long senseless. Agnes struggles to shape words through the immerser thoughts and offers to help them.