Armed WHITE HAZMAT SUITS storm Bentham House, University of London, 2036. An illegal live version of Rockin’ in the Free World blasts from the basement as Hazmats hurl BODIES into the CROWD toward stage. ‘You are all under arrest. Curfew. Distancing. Quarantine. Live music violations.’ In an anonymous city in the Western Hemisphere, SABLE AUGUST née CRYSTAL AUGUR (Intersex 22) works as a ‘remote persona architect’ for O-Pentham, new national security partner and frontier multinational AI corporation. They moonlight as rising rock star SABLE AUGUST, sharing an apartment with their ailing MOTHER (Brooke Augur, cis female 50s), an arthritic religious fanatic with a mind for conspiracy and too much time free time. Sable has the chops of a world-wide popstar, but the ban on live gatherings and other restrictions leaves digital home recording and online performance as the only outlets. Allowed outside for the first time in months thanks to ‘Sector Easing,’ Sable and Mother clash with O-Pentham SECURITY outside their building and meet an ELDERLY WOMAN who inspires Sable to write the infectiously topical song Summer Alone. They post a performance video of writing and recording it to the O-pentham social media app and it gets the attention of influencer ADA CHESHIRE (cis female 30). With a surreptitious visit to the black market PHARMACY for Mother’s meds scheduled that night, Sable agrees to meet Ada at an underground club called DEEP DIVE afterward.
The Pharmacy, dilapidated brownstone on the outside, neon drug house inside, caters to addicts and patients alike, proprietor VAN ROSSBORN (cis male 30s) an equal opportunity scum. Sable and Rossborn have unclear history regarding Sable’s father so Sable gets in and out asap, their conversation barbed. Mother watches videos of a young Sable, then Crystal, joking with deceased husband and father RICK. Dodging O-pentham Patrol trucks and drones, Sable makes it to Deep Dive, an exclusive virtual reality fetish bar owned by would-be wise-guy BILLY UNDERNEATH (cis male, 40s). Ada has discovered a way to modify existing VR headsets so users can actually feel what’s happening in the VR landscape. Billy asks Sable to be a musical performer in this VR network they call Glimmernette. Ada suggests they ‘Night Pass Curfew’ together at the club. Sable demurs, having left Mother their one phone and needing to return with the meds. Meanwhile, Mother has been making arrangements with LOUISE the neighbor to move a piano into the apartment as a surprise for Sable. Back on streets now more heavily patrolled, Sable is spotted and chased by an A.I. surveillance drone, then captured and arrested by Hazmats. Knocked out, Sable comes to with a mysterious eye injury at the O-pentham Detention Center. OFFICER STANTON (cis male, 40s) aggressively questions Sable while praising O-pentham’s founder and current President of the United States, GAYLENE VINCENT (cis female, 50s). Stanton releases Sable, secretly ordering drone surveillance to tail them home.
Back home at dawn, hiding behind sunglasses, another suspicious SECURITY GUARD at the door and a worried Mother inside, Sable avoids argument and runs a bath, dozing while whistling a new tune. There Is Confusion revisits The Pharmacy, Deep Dive and the Detention Center in a musical dream turned nightmare. Awakened by a knock at the door, Sable inspects the eye in the mirror as it goes gray and is startled when their reflection flickers like a hologram. Shades and a mask back on, Sable joins Mother as they watch Louise and the suspicious Guard wheel in the piano. Wary of the Guard, Sable insists on moving it into the bedroom without their help, then discovers an O-Pentham DRONE hovering outside their window, monitoring their heat signature and eavesdropping via powerful microphone. The Most Beautiful World, the song Sable was writing in their first scene, fades in full as the Drone watches, listens...