Shane tries to talk Randi through shared demons and delusions.

Phase One Doesn’t Consider Priority One

Cast

Randi Halle Millien

Shane Mark Millien

SFX and Music Contributors

SFX

Q Tone [Query]

Tone 4.wav by patchen of freesound.org

Q Tone [Response]

Tone 3.wav by patchen of freesound.org

Music

Desmond’s Letter Theme

Summer Lullaby by Nightingale of looperman.com

Created by Mark and Halle Millien

Cover Art by Halle Millien

Written, Directed and Produced by Mark Millien

Desmond’s Letter:

A security guard was shot and killed in Michigan. They have a mask mandate. This family, the daughter, didn’t have one on. The report says they got into a verbal altercation and then the security guard asked the cashier not to serve them, told them to go. They left. Twenty minutes later they come back, with another member of the family. Brother, husband, I’m not sure. But he shot the security guard in the head and he died. Half the states in the country reopened over the weekend and it doesn’t feel like any of us are any safer. It just feels like we are running out of options. Into madness. Most of the deferments that we were able to qualify for come due in July but we still aren’t making money. The stimulus check is supposedly a few days away but it won’t make the difference that we need it to. The guidelines everyone is working from is bullshit. It’s like they’re trying to design a class struggle between people with kids and people without them. I can’t leave them here with Mara. She can’t watch them the days she’s working Helen has been no help. I take that back. She’s become really focused on Harrison, but Randi, it’s like she’s disappeared as far as Helen’s concerned. I’m worried about Roderick. He called yesterday, but he only spoke to me and he didn’t want me to tell anyone. That’s not sustainable. He knows that, but he doesn’t know what to do about it. A car company based here said that anyone who didn’t show up May 1st had essentially quit. What’s the point of that? They want to lose experienced workers in the middle of the pandemic to replace them with people with more flexibility, who are desperate enough to risk their lives and in demand enough to go wherever this new mercenary economy will hire them? Is it just a way to quickly shed payroll under the auspices that they tried to offer their workforce a fair shot? I feel like the pictures of people flocking to beaches should be providing me with hope, but it’s a brand new type of dread on top of all the other solidifying shadows with sharp edges lurking at the periphery. It only occurred to me today, stupidly, that you all may be falling behind academically. That maybe what I’m doing isn’t enough. How could it be? I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. And will you suffer for it? Maybe the curve will adjust. If everyone is swimming in place, then won’t the expectations just shift? It’s a lie. I knew it was a lie before I typed it. This will be the same unequal bullshit on a whole new scale, widening gaps that were already chasms. I remember at the beginning of this feeling a sense of security because this was something that didn’t affect children. Then that beautiful little girl died and it shook another convenient lie. But now I see that whether she was an outlier or not, it didn’t matter. But the virus is coming for my children in another way. Instead of crippling their lungs, it will cripple your advancement, your ability to compete with an entire class of people that already had a head start. All the bills are coming due.

Glossary

The Atlanta Ospreys: a virtual league team that encompasses all the major VR sports (basketball, hockey, baseball, football and American football) under a single team with a single owner and employing hundreds of virtual athletes that compete in digital arenas for millions of specs.

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