nation personification · political satire · anthropomorphism · ensemble cast · summoning · hidden truths · tense · dialogue heavy
The studio thrums under the flat, sterile glare of overhead lights, painting long, distorted shadows across banks of dormant screens and snaking cable coils. Your hand rests on the console, a single finger poised above the ignition switch. One push. The atmosphere shivers, ozone sharp in the air—and then they are simply *there*, bodies snapping into reality in a heap of startled limbs and wide eyes. Scythia mutters a low, guttural curse, his gaze slicing across the walls. Cerise fists her hands in her sleeves. Helios adjusts his pitch-black sunglasses, the line of his jaw hardening into stone. Every one of them stares as the central monitor flickers awake, white text burning into the dark: ‘Video 1/?’. The silence that crashes down is absolute, charged. Just what have you dragged th…