Elliot
Elliot sacrificed his early adult life to build his VC firm, Aestera - an endeavor he would now admit was probably tied to the unrequited feelings of his childhood crush, June. As Aestera expanded, Elliot was forced to privately concede when June and Danny, his co-founder, began dating. A year later, an inflection point in Aestera’s growth prompted a shift in the business’ direction - one that Elliot deemed necessary, but Danny saw as a betrayal of the company they built. Danny soon left Aestera, and likely out of guilt, Elliot continued to financially support him through occasional under-the-table checks, though an unspoken tension quietly brewed.
Elliot’s journey begins when a casual run-in with June reveals she and Danny to have been long-broken up - something Danny had kept secret. As Danny returns, in need of money, Elliot must decide to help him or not - a decision complicated by his growing closeness to June, who seems more receptive to his feelings this time around.
June
Last year, June’s weekly vlog channel gained 20,000 followers - an exciting rise that gradually plateaued in emblematic tandem with her personal life. After her relationship with Danny ended - for reasons still uncertain to her - June retreated to her insular studio apartment, where she consolidated marketing spreadsheets part-time and spent the rest of her days documenting her quiet, domestic life to a thin, but consistent viewership.
June’s journey begins when she runs into Elliot, whose romantic interest in her, though unreciprocated, offers her the chance to grow her content career. Enticed by an opportunity to change her life, June leaves the bubble of her apartment and attempts to navigate a new world of power, wealth, and desire - thrown into overdrive by the reappearance of Danny, the only man she’s ever loved.
Danny
When Danny first joined Elliot at Aestera, he believed “tech would save the world.” However, as Elliot began steering the company in an increasingly compromised direction, Danny found himself disillusioned by a more impenetrable reality than he had initially imaged. In the ensuing months, Danny left Aestera, and in the wake of his grandfather’s subsequent death, ended his relationship with June - both of which he’d reasoned as having “no future.” Funded by the occasional under-the-table payout from Elliot, Danny spent the next few months numbly floating through the lonely day-to-day blur of life in a city he no longer cared for.
Danny’s journey begins with an unexpected phone call notifying him of the potential seizure of his grandfather’s property - a secluded, small-town family home. Offered the opportunity to leave it all behind, he proposes an illicit deal with Elliot to secure the necessary funds, though finds that his relationship with Elliot has changed - for reasons he can only guess are… about a girl.
Neil
Neil quit a well-paying coding job to devote himself to building an AI-startup in the cramped one-bedroom apartment he shares with his long-time girlfriend, Riley. Neil’s unyielding passion for his company and its potential to affect change in the world initially brought a sense of excitement to Neil and Riley both; however, over time, the pragmatic realities of Neil’s stagnating company began to set in, pulling Neil deeper into his work, and away from Riley.
Neil’s journey begins with an unexpected call from Danny, an enigmatic “consultant” who offers to help get his company to Elliot, the founder of a lucrative VC firm. Danny reveals his offer as being contingent on Neil making a major change to his company - one that would compromise the integrity of his long-held vision. Pressured by Riley’s growing distance, Neil must figure out how to save his company, his relationship, and his hopes of changing the world.
Riley
As Riley’s twenties came to a close, she found herself confronted by a lingering emptiness. The life she’d been living suddenly struck her as “going nowhere.” The future she once imagined for herself had dissolved. Her five-year relationship with Neil had staled as he became engrossed in his slow-growing company - a sobering realization that revealed repressed feelings about Riley’s own career, which in the hindsight of adulthood, she would admit she never found any fulfillment in.
Riley’s journey begins when a coworker’s pregnancy prompts her to start questioning the confines of her career, her relationship, and her future. She considers a new job, invests herself in the untethered life of a free-minded friend, and pursues a relationship with a divorced co-worker - all of which offer little fulfillment. Clutched by the ticking clock of adulthood, Riley must decide to accept the realities of her relationship or figure out a new way forward.