Home for the Holidays: Exploring Immersive Tales in our Boxed Experience Era
This short story by Alexei Cifrese, your Front Desk Representative who takes your box orders, packs them lovingly, and sends them off to our kindly FedEx driver. He's had a lot of time to ponder Room Service and hopes you enjoy this holiday tale.
Imagine this..
You’re sitting at the Thanksgiving dinner table. A magnificent feast lies before you, but you can’t have any of it - not until everyone’s gone around and shared what they’re thankful for.
Grandma says she’s thankful that her Pumpkin Pie turned out great. Well, we’ll know in about 45 minutes.
Uncle Phil Who Drinks Too Much Wine says he’s thankful that his oldest survived pre-calc and is heading to college. The crowd breathes a sigh of relief.
Nephew Ted Who’s Ten and Three Quarters says he’s thankful for his family. What a poser.
And while you try to come up with something better than “I’ll be thankful for when this is over,” Cousin Meghan Who Does Everything Right suddenly drops this bomb:
“I’m thankful I got to experience all three of Nordo’s Room Service boxes before they went away forever!”
A BEAD OF SWEAT tumbles down your forehead.
“Room Service boxes?” Uncle Phil inquires, his eyebrow curved like the freshly refilled wine glass cradled gently in his hand as if it were the newly born Christ.
“Yeah!” Cousin Meg exclaims, flipping her ponytail back with such elegance that, had she lived in Ancient Greece, Hera would strike her down in a jealous rage.
“This super cool immersive dinner theater transformed some of their original plays into room service boxes during the pandemic, so that people could still experience the magic of theater in their own home!”
NOW, dear reader, you cannot see your own face, but if you could, you would see the thousand-yard stare every actor worth his salt has tried to recreate on the big screen as scenes from The War flashed before them.
Only instead of The War, your mind is plagued with memories of you sitting on the couch at 2am playing the same video game you haven’t beaten since childhood. Of you and your significant other trapped in yet another endless loop of “I don’t know what do YOU want to do today?” Of you…going outside.
“Oh!” Grandma perks up from the kitchen garbage can, shoving down the remnants of what appear to be shredded Cyrus O’Leary boxes. “Like those Hunt A Killer story boxes?”
“They’re even better than Hunt a Killer!” Meg smiles, flashing her perfect teeth for the camera that exists only in her mind. “They all include specially crafted cocktails and artisanal desserts!”
“DESSERTS?!” Nephew Ted shouts, suddenly invested in the conversation.
All those years searching for a chance to broaden your horizons, to be a wo/man of culture, or hell, for just a pleasant escape into another realm, only to recognize the answer in front of you the moment it vanishes forever into the void.
What a fool you have been.
Dear Reader, this fate does not have to be yours!
Now until the end of 2022 you can experience all three of our original story boxes!
Will you unlock the secrets of Hotel Nordo in Do Not Disturb?
(42 remain)
Or maybe donning a crown and gavel and judging some guilty characters in The Interrogation of Alice is more your style?
(27 left)
Or perhaps you'd care to summon some devils in The Witching Hour?
(Extremely limited supply!)
Or maybe you suffer from option paralysis, so you opt to get all three. (A valid life choice!)
Whatever you decide, order by Monday, November 21st and they’ll be shipped to you in time for Thanksgiving. Don’t hesitate - these boxes will disappear at the end of the year.