A stranger recruits a tester for a shadowy VR startup’s beta — then quietly reveals the headsets never used electricity, and neither of them may still be entirely present.
Devs’s quiet dread, delivered as a completely mundane startup onboarding scene.
The story
Michael is walked into an after-hours office building by Peter, an awkward acquaintance recruiting him to beta-test a VR product still years from launch. The pitch is standard startup theatre — concept art, an NDA, a vague promise about “level design” — until the basement testing rig turns out to be taped-together headsets full of magnets, no screens, no power draw beyond a login. Peter explains, with the calm of someone who’s stopped finding it strange, that the device doesn’t stimulate the brain electronically anymore, and that what they’re both about to enter is called the Substrate: a shared space neither of them is precisely inside, because it runs as “quantum state microservices.” The scene ends mid-connection, Peter’s question — can you still hear me? — going unanswered. The Substrate is hard sci-fi played as a slow-building tech-onboarding scene, right up until the technology it’s onboarding you into stops being explicable.
Coverage — plot points
- Peter recruits Michael after-hours to beta-test an unreleased VR product.
- The reveal: no screens, no power, just a helmet full of magnets and a login.
- Peter explains the Substrate runs as “quantum state microservices” — neither of them physically present inside it.
- The connection begins; Peter’s last question, “can you still hear me?”, goes unanswered.
“We’re both projecting into the Substrate. Most of its processes run as quantum state microservices.”
“Michael? Can you still hear me?”
Read the sample
Below is the existing draft. Scroll to read, or download the PDF.
Seeking representation, or a home in a shorts / anthology package. Complete script available on request.