– DEFRAGMENT –
Myth: Orpheus and Eurydice
The myth, was about Orpheus, a talented musician who’s wife had died. He was overcome with grief and decides to travel to the underworld and bring her back. Those that stood in his way were moved by his mournful song. Hades let him take her back on the condition that he doesn’t look back at her till she is out into the light. However, at the entrance, he looks back too early and she is drawn back into the underworld.
Concept:
I distilled the myth into the element of ‘A person that needs to travel into another world to retrieve a part of himself’
Using that I made my story a about a man who get zapped into a virtual world but in the process his personality is fragmented. He has to retrieve these cubes that each hold a certain aspect of his personality.
Genre:
Sci-fi + Drama
SYNOPSIS
JOHN, a depressive hermit working as a Janitor wakes to a notice of his weekend assignment at ‘Stux Industries’. The company, a fresh startup, unheard of with barely a mention anywhere. The posting, a long commute from his house barely incites a reaction. Stoic as usual, having grown cynical over the years, his thankless job didn’t help with that.
He starts off going about his mundane cleaning duties, but unlike most previous cleaning jobs, he is constantly in awe of the creations sitting around the place. Having been an electrical engineer previously, he feels his passion for electronics rekindle. Whilst going about his duties, he spots a cable sparking from a loose connection. He readjusts the cable and a thundery rumble fills the room. Suddenly arcs of electricity jolt out and John is knocked unconscious.
He awakens, seemingly unhurt. The environment however, is sparse, with only a grid stretching as far as the eye can see. Without so much as a thought, he begins to walk, and polygonal forms rise out of the ground in the distance. He hastens his pace and heads toward the newly formed structures, a desolate cityscape, resembling the neighbourhood he lives in. He finds his house and inside, on his bed he sees a small glowing cube. Upon picking it up, it dissipates into his hands and he a sense of peace and relaxation washes over him. The environment crumbles around him, the debris phases through him and fades away.
He finds himself standing at the edge of a forest, a place of fear and foreboding from his childhood. John steps into the forest and disappears into the darkness. At a clearing, a rabid dog steps out of the bushes, he vaguely recalls a similar event from when he was a young boy. The two engage in a fight, and though unsure of the situation at first, John manages to emerge victorious. The dog fragments and leaves behind a cube, similar to the one John found on his bed. This time though, the cube incites an intense rush of fear and anxiety. As these feelings fade, so does the forest.
John starts to make sense of the environment and cubes as a sort of training ground involving fragments of his personality. He sets out through various scenarios, slowing gaining parts of himself back and reliving moments in his life. From his sense of humour with his friends at the bar, to anger when one of them played him out on a big job deal. The scenario now in sight was his old house, where he stayed with his ex-wife. Hesitant, he stepped in, straight into an argument with his wife, THE argument. He stood there, almost voyeuristically detached from the scene. After it was over, the cube sat in the middle of the now empty living room. He knew it was the moment where he began to become so cynical. He left the house and wrestled with picking it up, an unwanted aspect of himself. He felt an wave of all the emotions well up again. Leaving a part of him behind felt wrong, he stormed back in, picked it up, and felt himself emotionally harden up again.
Just then, he heard a voice echo from the sky. It identified itself as a scientist working in the lab. A brief exchange occurred between the two and John is soon brought back into the real world. A little relieved, a little sad, and feeling all his aches and pains that were absent in the other world return. With a smile, something he noticed hadn’t happened in a long time, John thanked the scientist, and they began a long discussion into the events that just transpired.
