The artifice of the holidays was distilled into an even more synthetic version via virtual reality. Families having long since physically disintegrating could now meet remotely in a digitally rendered scene. Physically Kelly was in her apartment in New York, but her neural synapses were processing the sights, sounds, and smells of Thanksgiving in her parent's house in the suburbs Chicago. The software rendered her as flesh to her parents. The embedded code manipulating their neural faculties simulated every detail down to the warmth of a hug which it was able to estimate to within less than a tenth of a degree. Kelly and her parents sat across from each other in an uneasy silence. Her father ate looking down at his plate, and her mother nervously pecked at her food while watching her heavy eyelids flutter while her chin, resting in her palm slowly sank further and further down toward the table. “Kelly are you alright?” Her mother finally asked with a tone of concern. “Huh? Oh ye