Aquarius Dawn - An Immersive Writing Competition Entry From Onlineability

Henry Nuttall, Fifth Earl of Wymondshaw, spent the first 30 years of his life as a High Victorian aristocrat who trained himself to become a highly-skilled amateur scientist. As such, he had very little need to engage much with the world around him or to respect the feelings of others – or often even notice their existence. Until, that is, an accident in his laboratory changed his life forever. He found himself propelled 100 years through time to an incomprehensible future and his resulting bewilderment and inability to cope there saw him incarcerated for decades in an old-fashioned secure mental institution. Following an initial period of anger and frustration he slowly learned to come to terms with his predicament by obeying the rules, keeping out of trouble and trying to learn as much as he could about the disturbing new world that he found himself inhabiting. While he has gradually come to understand (if not to welcome) things like the rapid advance of technology, the advent of popular democracy and widespread social change, he still has no idea what caused him to arrive here in the first place. How will Nuts, as he has become known, now discharged into the community and expected to shift for himself as best he can, make sense of his altered circumstances - and shake off the persistent teenage girl who refuses to leave him alone?