I struggled to remember this one. I actually briefly forgot it and panicked, having repeated the details to myself over and over immediately after waking up in a bid to prevent that from happening. Luckily my mind snagged on a small part of it which brought the rest to the surface.
I began on a ruined Earth. There was garbage everywhere. The wreckage of skyscrapers loomed in the distance. But one building was untouched. Immaculate, as if it had only just been constructed or was spared whatever disaster destroyed everything else.
It was a giant, shiny black icosahedron with no windows and only one door. As I approached the door, a bearded man emerged with what looked like a VR headset in his outstretched hands. He told me I could come live inside this building which had everything I could possibly need, if I only put the headset on.
I asked to see the inside first. He reluctantly allowed it. The amenities were good but not great. Everybody had a dorm style room. There was a cafeteria style area for eating, a library, a theater and so on. Everything was kind of drab and plain though.
Every other person I saw was wearing a headset. I asked why, and he told me that I would find out if I put mine on. The tour ended abruptly and he gave me an ultimatum: Put the headset on, or leave and never come back. So, I put it on.
I discovered right away that it wasn't VR exactly. I could see "through" the headset as two tiny cameras on the front fed real time video to each of my eyes. However it made everything look nicer. More colorful and luxurious. It was really convincing.
I tried to take it off but discovered it latched onto my head and could no longer be removed. I complained, but the bearded man scolded me. "Isn't everything much nicer this way? There's nothing you need to see with the headset off that is worth seeing these days."
That was my life from then on. What bothered me wasn't the coercion even, but that from then onward I could never tell exactly what was real and what was generated by the headset. My reality had become a mixture of truth and lies.
Stay Cozy!
