The afternoon sun, weak and filtered through the blinds, cast long shadows across Lachlan’s living room. Ethan, phone held like a sacred text, leaned into a corner of the couch, his voice a low, urgent murmur. “Is this angle better for the ‘Subway Secrets’ series?” he asked, gesturing to the half-eaten sandwich in his other hand. His dream of becoming a TikTok-famous ‘Sandwich Sensei’ was a full-time job, practiced in the fleeting hours between his actual shifts. The pursuit of viral fame had brought him here, to the familiar, slightly-stale comfort of his friend’s parents’ house.
Across from him, headphones clamped tight over his ears, sat Noah. He was in his own world, eyes closed in concentration, a quiet smile playing on his lips. The sounds of the forest—birdsong, rustling leaves, a babbling brook—were being meticulously layered and remixed on his laptop. He was a sonic alchemist, transforming the quiet hum of nature into a new kind of music. His Diploma of Music was a steady anchor in the storm of job applications and rejection emails, and Lachlan’s living room, with its uninterrupted Wi-Fi, was his studio.
Lachlan, meanwhile, was a world away. Perched on the other end of the couch, a VR headset obscuring half his face, he was a silent, unmoving statue. His hands, though, were a flurry of motion, gesturing and tapping in the air. He was with his girlfriend, they were at a concert in the Metaverse, and he was completely oblivious to the physical world around him. His life was online, his social circle existed in pixels and data streams, and this was his sanctuary.
The three of them sat there, side by side, yet each in a different universe. One chasing digital fame, one lost in sonic landscapes, and one living a life in a virtual reality. A silent, shared tableau of a generation, each searching for connection and meaning.
Story and art by Damian Smith
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