Chatterbox: Inkwell

Virtual Reality Story

I've been writing this story lately. I'm usually more about a utopian future, but I really like the idea of virtual reality so yeah. I'm pretty much writing all of it so far, because it's not really a story with more than two characters, but feel free to add a character, though they won't really meet because I already have another character planned in addition to Citali. Any input is welcome!

Synopsis:

Reaxis is the world government. They’ve given everyone a virtual reality headset and raised them alone. The virtual world everyone sees looks completely techie -- holograms, touchscreens -- and has nobody but themselves. The government, by isolating the people in a world that means nothing to anyone, ensures there is no rebellion and that society stays the way it is forever. Nobody remembers what happened before Reaxis because they are raised alone and taught by Reaxis. They all believe that their virtual reality is the real world. But one day, one person touches another. In his/her virtual world, there’s nothing, just thin air. But he/she can feel the other person, like they bumped into each other in the real world. They know what touch is because the virtual world has haptic (touch) feedback for hands and feet. But they’re touching on a different part, like elbowing each other. And they realize that if they are touching, they can communicate. They realize that Reaxis’s world is only virtual -- and they realize that there’s a real world out there.

Story:

Citali’s day started normally. Her world blinked on at 0:00 on Day 4818 of Citali in Reaxis. She stood up and moved from her Center across the meadow to the Buildings. Citali was moving in the way Reaxis prescribed -- a little swing of the arms and a rocking back and forth on her heels made her world move backwards around her, moving herself forward and closer to the Buildings, her destination. She turned her head in one direction and continued swing-rocking, and her world pivoted and moved forward again.

The meadow was green with a bit of a downward slope. Citali could tell the slope was there because it didn’t require so much effort of swing-rocking to move forwards, and her world bounced up and down with her movement slightly more. The sky was grey today, with darker and lighter patches. A silhouette of a black bird moved diagonally across the top portion of Citali’s view.

Eventually she’d moved far enough to arrive at the Buildings. When she swing-rocked forwards, she was stopped, a feeling of a surface with her hand and a lack of movement even when she swing-rocked. A movement of her arm up and forward, with a rotation of her wrist when she touched a circle, made a portal open, and she was able to move forwards through it.

Inside the Buildings, all was white. The walls were touch-glass, smooth when touched and with words scrolling across them that stopped or changed at a touch in the right place. Citali moved her arm forwards until it was stopped by one of the touch-glass screens. The words on the screen, which were something about today’s work, stopped moving so Citali could read. It was a list of times and what she would do.

0:15 -- Understanding the World of Reaxis

1:00 -- Being part of Reaxis

1:30 -- Changing your Reaxis

Citali moved her arm forward, making it touch the wall where it was written Understanding the World of Reaxis. The words blinked, becoming darker. Then, on the floor, also touch-glass, a ribbon of dark made a right angle. Citali swing-rocked forwards to where the darkness made the angle and turned her head, which showed that the ribbon moved forwards more and ended at a chair: a flat box rectangle on a skinnier prism that connected to the floor. The chair was three-dimensional, not like the floor: when Citali moved, its proportions changed, along with shading of its underside and the touch-glass floor around it. The chair stopped her motion when she went up to it, and supported her when she rested her weight on it.