Lake uses her bracelet to remind herself that the simulation isn’t real, while Taren uses his tattoo. What significance do each of these objects hold for these characters? What kind of object would you use to help you stay grounded while in the sim?
When Lake tries to rescue someone from the simulation, she often looks for an object that will help the person remember the real world. Why do you think this works well for Lake? Why does Taren try to find alternative methods to freeing people from the sim?
What kind of rules govern the simulation? Which rules does Lake make for herself, to guide her actions in the sim? Why does she often break these rules? How does Taren manipulate the sim’s rules to his advantage?
Taren struggles with the fact that the ship’s systems could fail at any time, killing everyone on board. For this reason, he’s willing to use the tar to free people from the simulation, even though he can never be sure the tar won’t kill them. Do you think this choice was justified? What other options were open to Taren and Lake, and how viable were they?
As the story progresses, Lake and Taren’s paths diverge more and more. In your experience, how have you diverged from someone you were once close to? How do you think these kinds of differences can be reconciled?
People sometimes suffer from “survivor’s guilt” after surviving a situation in which others died. How does Taren use the simulation to process his survivor’s guilt? How does Lake use it to process her own? How does Lake cope with the fact that Earth itself did not “survive” the nuclear war?
The survivors aboard the ship have fled a nuclear apocalypse, only to restart a similar conflict inside the simulation. Why does the group in the Battery feel the need to stockpile tar? How does this mirror real-world justifications for stockpiling nuclear weapons?
One reason it’s so hard to get people to leave the simulation is that they’ve retreated behind barriers they’ve set up. How do these barriers contribute to the conflict within the simulation? What real-world barriers do you think contribute to conflict? What is the best way to lower or remove these barriers?