Literary genre of the plot: science fiction | Los Angeles, 2422
Main characters
Elen and Ralph are a married couple living in an old inherited house, never leaving. This is the norm in the New World. The Citizens work, play, meet, study, exercise, and fall in love, but all virtually, through the avatars that populate the metaverse. Leaving home requires special permission granted by the City Council and is very difficult to obtain.
The only ones who have freedom of movement are the robots and drones that do the operational tasks. It seems like a happy and perfect world, free of violence and injustice. Like all Citizens, Elen and Ralph do not know the history that led to the creation of the New World. The Council has erased any written, audio, digital, or physical memory to prevent a repeat of past follies.
The call to adventure
Elen and Ralph's lives pass serenely within the home thanks to the ability to enjoy digital privileges that can simulate anything. But one evening, while searching for a bottle of wine in the cellar, Elen discovers a chest buried under a beam. In it are preserved the diaries of a man who lived hundreds of years earlier.
It tells the story of an Earth populated by hostile nations that ended up destroying each other. The author of the diary lived many decades after the terrible events and also tells of the birth of the New World, the Council, and the will to deprive the survivors of freedom. Finally, he hopes that the great library will be saved from the cleansing decreed by the Council.
The conflict
Elen reveals the discovery to Ralph. Despite his companion's reluctance, Elen motivates him to seek the truth and verify with his own eyes. The confrontation is not easy and lasts several weeks. Both fear breaking the rules, until Ralph relents and accompanies Elen outside, against all rules and putting at risk what they have accomplished together. They begin with small paths, hesitations, rushed re-entries. Finally they share the goal of reaching the library, if it still exists.
The key
Elen and Ralph following the directions of the diaries find the library and realize that man has been pervaded by the desire for power for millennia. And that is what they will be accused of when the Council robots capture them. But in prison they will discover that they are not the only ones who reject digital existence. They will manage to escape and reach a remote and desolate place where others like them have returned to live without technology. A real but exhausting life and Elen and Ralph will never be able to go back.
The alternatives
This structure is rather constrained, but not impossible to change. One can work on the characters (it could be an individual or a family) and also on the places and reasons for the creation of the new order. What is important is to keep alive the conflict between the desire to know the unknown and the fear of abandoning what is known.
