At the bottom of the rabbit hole, there is no light. The steel walls, strung in wire, are as cold as the air, and whoever might find you inside the dark of this massive, enclosed dome is entitled by the ruling Institute to Love you, or be Loved by you, however they desire. Their Safety and Happiness—Google, the watchful AI, will assure you—depends on it, and to deny them this, well, that’s just Hateful.

In this uncompromising and darkly humorous satire on the LGBT, where the infinite spectrum of gender—now known as Color—is fully realized, misgendering anyone results in being dismantled for parts or processed into Safe food. Simon, one of the few Shells to have a Natural, unmodified and still identifiably male body, must navigate this absurdist, transhumanist hellscape. Having been locked out of every unoccupied Safe Space after yet another argument with Google, he is left with no choice but to try and survive whatever might be bumping around every corner of Safe Dome Austin.

What follows in the first of this four-part series—MOTIVE BLACK—is a maelstrom of manipulation by Google, a mysterious Institute researcher named Ana, and the voice of an unseen figure, who only Simon can hear. They each have their own motives, and Simon is at the center of everything. In the fever dream of Simon’s attempt to find freedom, he’ll come closer to the truth of this nightmarish future, a truth as horrific as it is unimaginable.