Feed

After they land, their feeds are so bombarded with advertisements that it becomes difficult to talk to each other. Everything in the ads is sparkly and gold, but in real life Titus notices that everything is dirty and run down. The moon is crowded for spring break. Titus complains about the quality of the hotel, but Marty counters, “Unit, this is where I stayed last time. It’s like meg cheap, and all the staff are made from a crystalline substance” (8).

Since they’re all underage and no one has a fake ID, their minibar is locked. The ads quiet down in the hotel room, and they watch football. The girls converse silently over their feeds, and Titus tries again to fall asleep, but Link and Marty keep interrupting with shouts about the game. Titus reminds himself that the goal of the trip isn’t to rest but to have fun with his friends. They order nutrient IVs, which give them headaches, and they decide to go out to a restaurant for dinner. Marty suggests one place, but it’s no longer there, so they find somewhere else. Titus appreciates the artificial gravity, which makes things feel more normal.

There are several parties happening, but they’re college parties, and the group is turned away. Titus notes they can normally get into parties like that because Calista is beautiful and looks older; Link is extremely wealthy, which attracts people even though he’s ugly; Marty is good at every game he plays; and Titus acts cool and aloof. After they’re denied entry, they realize that they look rough and exhausted, although they’re all attractive (except Link). They also all have “the lesions that people were getting” (9), and their lesions all currently look raw and red. The group goes back to the hotel and showers before going out to the Ricochet Room. In the very low-gravity club, people wear padded suits and bounce off each other. Titus thinks the place is “old and sad” (9) and notices how Link, who is much taller and ganglier than the others “because he’s part of a secret patriotic experiment” (9) looks especially awkward.

The lesion on Titus’s arm has burst open and is weeping, so he is being careful to keep his arm away from others. Titus watches his friends, especially Loga, who he had dated about six months prior. After an angry breakup, Titus is glad that they are able to be friends again, but he is bothered that there doesn’t seem to be any lingering familiarity or closeness. He wonders if they might hook up on the moon if neither of them finds someone else, although he isn’t really interested in any of the three girls. Marty and Link play a game, and Marty is naturally better than Link. Link, a sore loser, declares that the club is boring. Suddenly, Titus notices that a beautiful girl is staring at them with disdain. Titus tries to decide what he finds so magnetic about her. There is something about her spine, and he can’t find a word to describe it. His feed supplies the word “supple” (11). In between chapters, there are snippets of songs and advertisements from the feed.

Surreptitiously, Titus follows the girl into the snack bar. He buys food and looks at her. She is wearing a gray wool dress, which Titus finds notable since it isn’t plastic, and her posture suggests that she doesn’t want to be noticed. Titus’s friends enter, and Titus ducks his head to avoid drawing attention to himself, but Link and Marty are too busy trying to one-up each other, and a bouncer starts to yell at them. Titus watches the girl who, unaware that she is being observed, opens her mouth and allows the juice she is drinking to float out. She watches it intently.

The group finds Titus, and Link complains that the club is boring. Calista reproaches them for breaking the rules and getting into trouble, and Marty gets upset that they are being negative about the club he had suggested. Link is suddenly embarrassed that the girl might hear them talking and think that they’re stupid. Quendy and Loga go off to the bathroom to fix their hair because, according to their feeds, the popular hairstyle to have has just changed.

Marty and Link notice the girl, and the three boys ogle her and talk about her through their feed. Calista starts a chat to call the boys out for staring. When Quendy and Loga return, Quendy is dismayed that her lesion seems to be getting bigger. Calista and Loga try to reassure her that no one will even notice it, and Link tells her to ask the girl. Link questions whether she notices anything about Quendy, and the girl replies, “The lesion isn’t that bad” (17). Quendy is mortified at first, but the girl goes on to explain that the face has a pair of gridlines that intersect at the nose. Since Quendy’s lesion is on the edge of her forehead, far from the gridlines, it only serves to frame her face, which is good. The girl points to her own lesion on her neck, which Titus thinks is beautiful, like a necklace.

Marty and Link flirt, offering to show their lesions, and the girl responds wittily. Calista, Loga, and Quendy start to chat obviously with each other over their feed, “like some ants after someone’s buried a missionary alive in the middle of an anthill” (19). Titus thinks the girl is incredible but is disappointed that she seems to be responding to Link’s flirting, and he wonders why women always seem to be interested in Link. The girl looks at Titus as if she is curious as to whether he will start flirting with her too. Titus thinks about the juice and finds himself tongue-tied. All the girls focus on Quendy and helping her to style her hair in a way that displays her lesion. Titus notes that Quendy is usually self-conscious, because she is like a less-beautiful version of Calista and knows it, but she is clearly not feeling that way now. Titus keeps staring at the girl and thinking about how he wants to be with her more than anything.

There are more snippets from the feed between the chapters, with brief excerpts from advertisements and entertainment programs that seem to deal with issues of humanity, dehumanization, and reality.

The group learns that the girl’s name is Violet, and she is spending her spring break on the moon alone because she likes to watch people. None of them will admit that they want to go to sleep, so they invite Violet to go to a club that was advertised on their feed, the Rumble Spot. Reluctant at first, Violet agrees. As they walk, Titus notices that the girls don’t seem pleased that all three boys are orbiting around Violet and asking her questions. Link decides that they should get drunk before they go to the club, and Marty says that he knows a place that doesn’t check IDs. However, when they get there, the bar is gone and there is a mall in its place.

The group decides to go shopping, and Titus thinks, “I wanted to buy some things but I didn’t know what they were” (24). They wander around and make some unsatisfactory purchases. Marty can’t find anything, so he orders a “null” (24) shirt online. Link suggests that they go back to the hotel and try to open the minibar. In the taxi, they pass a group of people who are protesting and broadcasting slogans to the feed: “Chip in my head? I’m better off dead!” (25), which makes Loga roll her eyes.

They all go to the girls’ room and try unsuccessfully to break open the minibar. Titus is anxious because Violet doesn’t seem to be having a good time. Link is disappointed that they can’t get drunk, and Marty suggests, “We could malfunction” (26). Calista and Loga roll their eyes, and Violet becomes visibly uneasy, but Link and Marty are insistent. Marty knows about a site called “Lobe-reamer” (26), but seeing Violet’s discomfort, Titus tries to tell them to stop. Calista starts a chat and also tells them to give it up, and they finally do. The group goes to the Rumble Spot, where a band is playing while suspended from the ceiling. Titus admires the shorts that a group of guys are wearing, and his feed offers them for sale. All the clothes that he sees and likes pop into his head with prices, and it makes him happy. Loga, Calista, and Quendy go right to the dance floor. Violet tries to talk to Titus, but he can’t hear her, so she chats him, “This is a scene” (27). Violet doesn’t like dancing, but they observe people and talk about them. An older man in dirty tweed dances, seemingly in mal. Suddenly, they turn the artificial gravity off. Violet grabs Titus’s arm and then apologizes. Titus puts his hand over hers. Violet smiles and pulls her hand away. The gravity brings them back to the ground, but the man in tweed flies around with a jetpack.

Titus comments that Violet doesn’t seem to be having fun, and Violet says that she will, admitting that this is new to her. The man in tweed tries to shout in Link’s ear. Titus tells Violet that the moon hasn’t been much fun. She quips that he ought to try Mars, and Titus replies that he has been to Mars, and “it was dumb” (29). Violet is incredulous that he can write off an entire planet, which irks Titus. The music drowns them out, but her body language shows that she is starting to dislike him. The man in tweed shouts to them, leaning in until they hear him, “We enter a time of calamity!” (30). Link exclaims, “This unit, he’s like completely fuguing” (30). Violet is baffled, but the rest of them back away. Suddenly, the man touches a metal handle to Titus’s neck, which makes him broadcast the phrase over and over: “We enter a time of calamity!” (30). He touches Violet, Link, and Marty, and they, along with the others he has touched, start broadcasting too. His mouth is shouting, out of his control. The police show up. Frightened, Violet and Titus grasp at each other’s hands. Then the police whisper in their ears, “We’re going to have to shut you off now” (31). Then everything disappears as they fall to the floor.