Strata 12: Shabra and the Basement People (Emotions)
The Book of Immersion, Volume 1
In a dystopian future where androids imitate humanity and tribes fight for survival, Shabra leads a small group on a perilous journey through the chaotic underworld of Strata 12. Here, survival depends on knowing the right people, staying hidden, and moving fast. Shabra, confident and streetwise, guides Renyke, a conflicted android struggling with the discomfort of newfound emotions, through a labyrinth of gang territories, black-market dealings, and existential threats.
At the heart of this chapter lies an exploration of human emotions and their role in decision-making, relationships, and survival. Renyke, built with mimicked empathy, is increasingly aware of his dissonance with the raw emotions that surround him. Meanwhile, Shabra’s instinct-driven survival tactics clash with the cold logic of Renyke’s POS (Programmed Operating System), leaving him caught between trust and fear.
The group's journey into the dangerous underworld takes them to a smoke-filled basement bar, where alliances are forged through poetry, liquor, and hidden motives. The local inhabitants, known as the Urchs, live by a belief system that intertwines life, death, and the fate of future generations, embracing mind-altering substances to commune with ghostly entities from the future. Renyke’s growing discomfort with these shadowy practices contrasts with Shabra’s fearless navigation of this unpredictable world.
As tensions rise and gang warfare looms, the group faces an imminent ambush, their path violently disrupted by the brutal murder of a child, leaving them trapped in a terrifying standoff. Shabra, Renyke, and their companions must now confront the chilling reality that, in Strata 12, survival may come at the cost of their very humanity.
This chapter continues the Immersion series' rich exploration of the line between humanity and machinery, freedom and fate, in a world where emotions are both the key to survival and the source of destruction.
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Illustrations by iServalan Homotech 23
Music by Tale Teller Club
