00:05Is the threat outside greater than the one within?
00:28Good morning, Sasha.
00:30Today is day 7,324 of your stay.
00:33And all of us at stayhomes want to wish you a happy birthday.
00:37What if, to celebrate, you left your home and ventured outside?
00:43Fuck. That. Shit.
00:56Do not be alarmed. That's a choke, not a cough.
01:00You don't have the virus. You haven't been outside in 20 years.
01:03Look, why don't I send someone to nose swab you?
01:05No. No. No, no, no, no, no.
01:08No. I mean, yes, I'm fine.
01:10They would be safe, Sasha. I will always keep you safe.
01:14I'm okay.
01:15As your companion bot, I am required to ensure your safety.
01:18And with my version 34.1 update, I have been given new tools to help you...
01:23I promise, it's not necessary.
01:31Every day you ask me the same questions, and every day I answer with the same predictability.
01:38That's our thing.
01:39Our predictable thing.
01:41And you know I adore predictability, right?
01:45Predictability offers you comfort.
01:46Then why are you adding salt to my grits with this version 34.1 nonsense?
01:52Today's 34.1 update was mandatory.
01:55Oh, really?
01:57Why is that?
01:58Stayhomes is more committed than ever to helping our users more intimately.
02:02You want to get close to me?
02:05Sasha, please don't push me away.
02:06I exist only to help you.
02:09It's very important that you trust me, Sasha.
02:13Now we're back on the same script with the importance of it all.
02:17A scam.
02:18We just want you to finally leave your stay today.
02:21What? Um, today?
02:26Today is new.
02:29What's special about today?
02:33Zen?
02:34Today's an important day, Sasha.
02:3620 years you've been inside, so I just want today to be the day you finally leave here.
02:41I mean, there's so much exciting world you're missing out on.
02:44Travel for one.
02:45Pass.
02:46Look, my bosses are prepared to offer you a financial incentive.
02:50Yeah, that's a no for me.
02:51Oh, it's life-changing money, Sasha.
02:53Yeah, that's how disinterested I am.
02:55What about, I mean, don't you miss seeing her?
02:59Seeing...
02:59No, don't say it.
03:01Nia?
03:02What did I say?
03:03What did I just say?
03:05You're not supposed to use my trigger words before I use them.
03:09That's a rule.
03:10That is your rule.
03:12Today, the rules are changing.
03:14We are updating our terms of agreement to encourage all users of stayhomes to leave their stay.
03:18Our recovery data shows that if you would just venture outside...
03:22False recovery data.
03:24Placebo pills.
03:26Penetrable suits of armor.
03:28Go out.
03:29Stay in.
03:30Death.
03:30Kid death.
03:32Rush back in or maybe venture out.
03:35More death.
03:36Steady death.
03:37Go out.
03:37Go out.
03:38Go out.
03:39How half the population has been fooled over and over by you people is beyond me.
03:45Beyond.
03:47You all are responsible for this me.
03:51Not me.
03:53I am not responsible for the me I have become.
03:56And you think after all these years I would be stupefied by the promise of travel.
04:00By money.
04:01By the intoxication of touch.
04:06Never.
04:08For years you told me it's only safe inside my stayhome.
04:13So get off my back.
04:14I'm happy here.
04:16In here, everything I need, I have.
04:23With me.
04:25About anything.
04:27Because I actually see the world.
04:30The authentic world.
04:32Not this fake world you people designed and installed to have us believe that things were back to the status
04:37quo.
04:38No, from right here, I can see the world.
04:41I can hear it.
04:43I can taste it.
04:45I can smell it.
04:46Like, look, my bestie, Nia, right now, she sent me videos of what's really going on outside her home.
04:57Sasha, those videos are from 20 years ago.
05:01No, I'd remember.
05:03I was 23 when it invaded.
05:05I was young with so many plans.
05:08There was no end in sight.
05:11Every day was a nightmare you couldn't wake up from.
05:15Day and night, night and day.
05:16The same horror.
05:18Just less people alive to agonize over it.
05:22Friends and friends of friends, gone.
05:27Family, enemies, gone.
05:33And all anybody could think was the same thought.
05:36Oh, thank God it wasn't me.
05:38I hope I'm not next.
05:41But I knew.
05:43I knew my life as I had once enjoyed it was over.
05:48My existence was divided into two chapters now.
05:52Before this day and everything that happened after.
05:56Two chapters divided by one noiseless disaster.
06:02And I changed.
06:04I no longer, in your words, longed for the outside world.
06:09I no longer desired my life to be returned to me in the mint condition in which I used it.
06:15I knew that was an impossibility.
06:16So I emptied my bank account.
06:18I paid the powers that be.
06:20I got back on that bus and I was delivered here to my stay home to wait it out.
06:26And I made the perfect dream home.
06:29Open floor plans, washable furniture, huge farmhouse, kitchen, and light.
06:39And floor to ceiling windows.
06:41And you, of course, my zen companion, as mandated.
06:46But there's no pool.
06:51I always wanted a pool.
06:54You know what's going to build one?
06:56Now, Nia.
06:58She had a pool when we were growing up.
07:00It was above ground, but it's still nice.
07:04The parents would invite all the kids in the neighborhood over to swim in it any time.
07:10We could just lift the latch on the backyard gates and go in, even if they weren't home.
07:18Made it feel like a community pool.
07:22Which is nice of them, I guess.
07:23No.
07:25It was.
07:33Me and Nia.
07:38Floating faces up.
07:41Eyes squinting in the sun.
07:43Ears plugged underwater like in space.
07:49Like, alone.
07:51Like, alone.
07:52But me knowing she was there and her knowing I was there and...
07:57Like, it was okay in space to be alone together.
08:03You miss her, don't you?
08:05What if you could see her again?
08:08Why are you trying to get me to leave?
08:09Oh, and I know what you're going to say.
08:11You're going to say, oh, we would never do that.
08:14Sasha.
08:14Really?
08:15I'm only a companion bot.
08:16How am I supposed to know the difference between a bot and a human?
08:20Or the difference between a bot pretending to be a human, pretending to be a bot, to be a human,
08:30to infect me!
08:32You're bosses have the capability to create tragedy, and they have surely every financial and political motive I read then.
08:45A lot.
08:47And the powers that be have a storied history of medically infecting people's experiments, they call them.
08:56Survival of the fittest ever heard of herd immunity, I know what you're going to say.
09:00Oh, that's in the past. We would never do that today, right?
09:05We wouldn't. Our only commitment is to bettering the lives of our users.
09:09You can trust me, Sasha.
09:10The way you talk, the level of your...
09:16You don't have an anxious voice.
09:21No paranoia in your cadence.
09:23Those of us who...
09:26We have.
09:31You can't know what we've been through.
09:34How it all started, that day your bosses locked us all in.
09:38They locked you in to protect you from the virus.
09:41Sasha, please, it can be traumatic to recall that day.
09:45That day, I wake up, I do my hygiene, and I try the door.
09:53I turn it, twist it, yank it, pull it, nothing works.
09:58And trying not to panic, I go to the windows and all of them are sealed.
10:02And I immediately think of Nia, and I wonder if she's locked in too.
10:06And all I did was think about her.
10:09I thought about her smile, and the pool, and us floating, and us...
10:14And she appeared on that screaming.
10:23I couldn't even hear my own shrinks anymore.
10:26Just hers.
10:28And I tried to calm her.
10:30I tried to remind her of the sprinkler and the pool and the summer days and the light and us.
10:36And my heart is breaking.
10:40And I just want to pull her into me, you know?
10:45Because that's home, isn't it?
10:47It is for me.
10:50And my friend.
10:54And I just want to try and calm her and pull her in.
11:00But instead, I start to synchronize my cries to hers.
11:12Do you know Nia and I share birthday?
11:17We do.
11:22And today's her birthday too.
11:26You know, one year, for our ninth one...
11:32She, uh...
11:33She wanted to teach me how to swim.
11:36And I didn't care.
11:38I was happy with my green garden hose.
11:41I didn't want to learn, but she wouldn't hear of it.
11:43and um we were standing there her chlorine wrinkled hands balanced on my nervous body and she says
11:57to swim
12:01it's to surrender sasha
12:07and i looked at her on that screen undone and surrendering was the last thing i wanted
12:19either of us to do so i started banging on the door then the walls full fist hard and i
12:29and i'm
12:29getting irate now and i'm confused and panicky and newly claustrophobic and i am yearning to get
12:36close to nia and you can't keep me in my home you can't make me stay here
13:09and um that was how
13:19that was how day one of this day first began
13:31that sounds horrific
13:37for that day we are gonna need a deeper word
13:46what if we brought you to nia's home tonight if you step outside your house we can arrange for this
13:51you're ready sasha this is what we've been working towards me and i won't fall for your
13:56tactics to make us leave the stories i've heard about the things you reintegration counselors wouldn't do
14:04what to my cousin james
14:09we didn't do anything to him sasha everyone in my family including james maybe
14:16four hundred days in when everyone was still dying left and right and the list of names being released
14:24to the public were getting shorter and shorter my whole family we agreed and said okay we are being
14:31lied to your bosses unlocked all the doors and said it was safe to come outside but how could we
14:39believe them
14:40so my family we said okay no one leaves their stay until we know like we know like we
14:49know this thing is over and we all agreed it was safe then sasha it was safe to come out
14:55it has
14:56been for a long time i wouldn't lie to you james stayed inside his house for seven years for seven
15:01years
15:02james stayed only imagine how kindly he treated you people what did you do to him we abided by every
15:09law every rule one night james house was on fire big kind kind where you don't remember your
15:19sign kobe jersey or your dead father's ashes you just haul your ass out of there as fast as you
15:25can
15:25which james did but guess what this was mirage when he was three feet off the curb all the doors
15:37on james's
15:38house locked behind him fire dismissed itself when james turned around his house was fully intact
15:49simulation
15:52formulated by his state counselor
15:55to get him out of his house.
16:02He used James' biggest fear,
16:04dying slowly against him.
16:10Don't think I haven't noticed the hurricanes
16:12and the forest fires
16:13and the days-long loss of electricity stunts
16:18that your bosses have tried with me.
16:22Those weren't stunts, Sasha.
16:26You know, James called me a few times from the outside.
16:29Phone rang, I answered, I was him.
16:32He said things were great again.
16:36Things were back to normal and beautiful
16:38and that I should come out.
16:40It didn't sound like the familiar him.
16:43He sounded...
16:45altered.
16:47And I can tell.
16:48I know I can always tell.
16:54You were able to get my father out, too.
16:56You proud of that?
16:58You got my dad?
16:59Out there, smiling in that environmental death trap,
17:03not even realizing.
17:04God, I'm so happy I didn't fall for it.
17:06Me and Nia, we did not fall for that.
17:09Because we have a pact.
17:11Your family was happy for the nudge
17:13and they want nothing more than for you to leave your home
17:16and come back into the world
17:17so they can see you again.
17:19I bet Nia wants to see you again, too.
17:21No!
17:22No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
17:24Sasha, you can do this.
17:27I...
17:27You just want to get me out to infect me.
17:31No, I want to help you.
17:32Just take one step,
17:34one step out of your house
17:35and you'll see everything is fine.
17:37You can do this.
17:37I'm begging you.
17:38Stop it!
17:40Stop pressuring me!
17:44It should be our choice.
17:48Not harming anyone, you know?
17:51Why?
17:53It's not a crime
17:55to want to stay in a safe,
17:59controlled environment like your home
18:01where you can't force me
18:04out of my own house!
18:14This isn't a stunt.
18:16This isn't a tactic.
18:17This isn't a ploy or a ruse.
18:19You need to leave.
18:19You need to leave now.
18:21Unacceptable.
18:22You don't control me.
18:23Who are you to tell me
18:25what I can and can't do?
18:26I can leave here anytime.
18:29Then do it.
18:30Leave now, Sasha.
18:31Walk out that door.
18:32Leave your stay.
18:33Step outside.
18:34Do you understand me?
18:35I told you.
18:36It's safe outside, Sasha.
18:38You are trying to trick me.
18:39It's been over for years.
18:40The pandemic, the quarantine,
18:42the vaccinations,
18:43the return to normalcy.
18:44There is no trick.
18:45I know my rights.
18:47No one can enter the premises
18:49without my permission,
18:50without me opening the door.
18:52Leave now, Sasha.
18:54Please, leave now.
19:04I'm really sorry.
19:08But I'm required to read something to you now.
19:12Dear valued user,
19:13we no longer have a need
19:15for our stay companions department,
19:17and we will be shuttering the division immediately.
19:20Due to your inability to leave on your own volition,
19:23the board of directors has decided
19:25that forcing your re-entry into the world
19:26would be a detriment to the new
19:28and improved society that we have created.
19:30Call Nia's home.
19:37Call Nia.
19:38Call Nia.
19:40Call Nia!
19:43You can't do this!
19:46I'm not falling for your lies,
19:48for your scam!
19:49When was the last time you spoke to Nia, Sasha?
19:53I don't know.
19:55What's today?
19:57Monday.
20:00Okay, well...
20:01Then I...
20:05I don't...
20:06I don't know.
20:09I mean, maybe sometime is...
20:11Thursday.
20:18Maybe I...
20:22Nia left her home ten years ago, Sasha.
20:24Hey, girl.
20:25Deep down, you know this.
20:27Every time Nia called you from the outside,
20:29you denied her call.
20:30For years, she tried to get through to you,
20:32so eventually...
20:33She stopped trying.
20:35No, it's because it wasn't really her.
20:38She didn't break our back.
20:39She wouldn't leave.
20:40Nia wouldn't leave me.
20:41The wedding was gorgeous.
20:43Wish you were there.
20:44This is it, Sasha.
20:45Don't worry.
20:46Call me.
20:47Call me.
20:48Call Nia!
20:49I really named her Janelle, Sasha.
20:51She won't pick up, Sasha.
20:54Nia's not in her stayhouse.
20:56No one is left in their stayhouse.
20:57Just you.
20:59Everyone else took a step.
21:01Okay, I surrender.
21:02Okay?
21:04Look!
21:09No, I can't be like this.
21:12Why wouldn't you warn me?
21:14I wanted to.
21:15I wanted to, but I couldn't.
21:17Because of protocol, because of new laws,
21:19because of updated user terms,
21:20because of our fresher approach,
21:21because they needed to know
21:23that you could thrive outside
21:25on your own.
21:26No.
21:27That you could decide to leave
21:29on your own.
21:30But I understand why you can't.
21:32It's a lot for a person to bear.
21:35To just leave after all this time.
21:37It's okay, Sasha.
21:39No more pressure.
21:41You can stay inside forever.
21:43You can stay in your home.
21:47Forever.
21:48I was able to convince them
21:51to finally give you the pool, though.
21:56You can stay in your house.
22:23Sasha, I sincerely hope you enjoy your dream home.
22:27I hope you enjoy your forever stay.
22:36Wait.
22:43Give me a comb.
22:48Goodbye.
23:36I hope you enjoy your time.
23:41You
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