As Riley and Evan step out of the elevator on the first floor, they say their goodbyes and head off for their own destinations. Riley got on the first bus arriving and left for college as Evan waved goodbye to his younger brother. He still had a few minutes to wait for his own bus heading for the edge of town, so he pulled out his own palm drive in order to check the news. He didn’t have those fancy contacts like his brother had to project the screen right in his own vision though. He was never really comfortable with wearing contacts. It wasn’t that they irritated his eyes or anything, he just had a slight paranoia about them sliding behind his eyeballs or something silly like that. Instead, he toggled the holographic display for his palm drive so he could see the news more easily than on the tiny screen.

Evan scrolls through the headlines looking for anything that might catch his eye. “Let's seeee. New droid model said to perfectly mimic human emotion… Nah. Local governor talking about planting a second tree in the city park. Hmph about time. New and improved model of prosthetics… Oh, here we go! ‘Dreamscape Online instant success.’ that game is better than I thought it would be. It’s only been out a few hours and it’s already on the front page of the news. If a virtuo pod wasn’t so difficult to get my hands on right now I might be tempted to dive in myself.”

Virtuo pods being difficult to get wasn’t an understatement. With the advent of Dreamscape online, millions of people that had held out the last few years on getting their own pod have finally made the plunge and it’s the top product to get for the holidays this year. The problem is, they are selling out the second they hit the shelves. A lot of times even before then. Evan ponders this tidbit of information until the gentle humming of magnetic wheels brings his attention away from the article as the mag bus pulls up next to him. He waits until the humming stops and the wheels settle to the ground and lock with the grid underneath the pavement. The moment the doors open, Evan steps onto the bus and takes a seat somewhat towards the middle of the crowded bus. As the magnetic wheel drives reactivate the bus rises from the ground a few inches and smoothly glides down the street towards his destination. Tuning into the crowd he notices a lot of people were all talking about the same thing. Dreamscape Online. Just how huge is this game? Even the general public is talking about it.

“My son had a virtuo pod just a week after it was made. He played for a week and then packed it away into our garage. Now this Dreamscape game came out and he has blown the dust off of it and has only come out of the thing a few times and even then only because I threatened to throw the damn thing away!”

“Dude this game is sooo freaking cool! You gotta try it out!” “I dunno man, I’m not much for hype. It’s always such a letdown.” “The hype is fucking legit, man! I already played like 8 hours on it!” “What?! How are you not collapsing from exhaustion?!” “fuck man! Didn’t you hear? You can play in your sleep! Duuh!”

“My friend said this game was pretty fun, I already have a virtuo pod so I just bought the game. I’m gonna give it a shot once I get home tonight. It sounds like fun.”

Deciding he heard enough Evan brings up a recording he had of last night’s football game onto his palm drive. He spends the rest of the trip watching the highlights before finally stepping off the bus at his job site. Looking around he notices the lack of workers in the area. The boss really didn’t exaggerate when he said a lot of workers took the day off today. There is hardly even anyone here. How does the boss even expect to get anything done? A huge construction platform marks the construction site. The few workers that showed up today are well into the process of building yet another tower. Evan lets out a large sigh and goes to the main office to clock in and begin his day at work.

......

As Evan begins his busy work day, Riley is just arriving at college. Arriving a bit early today, He decides to head into the cafeteria to grab a bite of breakfast and hang out with a few of his friends. After getting a plate of pancakes and bacon he walks towards a table set against the far wall where he and his friends usually hang out. All three of them are busy chatting away and don’t notice as Riley walks behind them until he drops his plate on the counter and grabs a chair. Gertrude notices Riley first and as always, is quick to go through with pleasantries. “Hello, Riley. How has your day been so far?” Riley smiles a greeting at the other two boys as they notice him during Gertrude’s greeting. “Hey, Gert. things are good. Hey Luke, how ya doin Franz? Anything… Interesting happen to you all last night?” Luke adjusts the leather jacket he is always wearing. It is worn almost to tatters but Luke has always refused to get a new one instead saying he will get his own one day when he feels ready. “HA! Interesting he says! Come on Riley! Don’t beat around the bush! We know what you really want to ask, so just ask already!” Gertrude smiles knowingly at Luke’s remark and I have to roll my eyes and ask the question they are all hinting at. “Sooooo. What do you guys think of the game?” “Awesome!” “It’s so much fun!” “I can’t get enough of this shit!” All three responded at the same time with obvious enthusiasm for the game and the conversation branches off from there as the 3 tell Riley all about their adventures. Luke can’t help but keep the excitement from his face as he talks about his character. “I made fairy rouge. He specializes in alchemy so I can make poisons and stuff. He’s so freaking tiny so I can sneak up on someone and nick them with my dagger then boom instant poison debuff.” Riley couldn’t imagine a 10-inch glow stick being sneaky but at his skeptical look Luke goes on to explain. “Fairies have this racial that allows them to control how much they glow. You could make yourself glow bright enough so that you never need a torch in a dark cave, but you can also turn off the glow entirely. At that point, a fairy becomes slightly transparent. Not quite invisible, but definitely more difficult to see than a glowing ball of light. Combine that with their tiny stature and it’s like they were built for sneaky.” Riley smiles and decides it’s time to ask the one question he knows will be the most entertaining part of Luke’s character. “So Luke what did you name your little glow stick?” At this Luke smiles broadly “Puff!” “What?” “Puff. Like Puff the magic fairy? I’m hoping to make my own stink bombs and everything too.” At this Luke couldn’t hold back his manic giggles. Of COURSE his name is a fart joke. It’s ALWAYS a fart joke. At Luke’s words, everyone rolled their eyes. “Aww come on guys! I thought it was funny! Imagine this, death by crop-dusting! Hehehe! People will be laughing even as they hit their rez point! It will be awesome!”

After dipping some of his bacon into the maple syrup from his pancakes and taking a bite Oh my… that's sooo fucking goood! Shit! Riley gathers his wits and turns to face Gert, ignoring any further commentary from Luke’s antics. “Sooo Gert. How ‘bout some normalcy here. What did you pick for your character?” At Riley’s words, Gertrude fidgets a little bit. “Ermm. Well, I didn’t exactly go normal either. I didn’t feel like making some hot elf chick or anything and have all the guys hitting on me while I’m playing. So instead I picked the first ugly character I saw and went with that…” Franz nudges her in the ribs “well, go on then! Don’t keep us in suspense! Tell us!” At Franz’s words of encouragement, Gert continues. “W-well, I made a Troll. When I saw the freakish regeneration I figured the most obvious path to go would be a berserker. Trolls hardly feel anything in terms of pain, and berserker cuts sense of pain down even more. Now you could hack a limb off my troll and I would barely notice. I got into a few fights with some players that thought I was a regular monster and the results were… Well. Terrifying to say the least.” Riley gaped at Gertrude. “Geezus! You're already fighting players!? What’s that like? Were there any penalties or anything?” Gertrude shook her head. “No. The other players attacked first so I had the right to defend myself, and because they thought I was a regular mob, the group didn’t try to protect their healer to well. I just killed the squishy players first and by then the tank was panicking because he couldn’t work out why his taunting skills weren’t working on me. I was laughing so hard at the end of it and I think I might have traumatized them.” Franz frowned a bit at that. “Why would they be traumatized. Killing is a part of the game, wouldn’t they expect that as part of being the normal experience?” Gert smiled knowingly. “Alright then Francis. Picture this. You're off hunting in the woods and decide to take on a random troll for whatever reason. It is twice as big as you and so you take a standard formation with the healer in the back and squishies to the side. The tank starts the fight by taunting the troll and then attacking it. Instead of going for the tank, the troll plows through the entire group and pulverizes the healer into the ground. Then turns the nearby wizard into a bloody tube of used toothpaste. The entire time the tank is hacking at the troll and cursing vehemently wondering ‘why the hell the fucking troll isn’t smacking him back’ Then the troll starts laughing. If you haven’t heard a troll laugh before, it isn’t as nice sounding as you think, and to be laughing while your entire group is pounded into paste… I would have been pissing myself if I was in that tanks boots.”

Riley laughs while imagining the scene. “I wish I had been there to see that. I haven’t even been outside my starting town yet.” Franz’s attention refocuses on me. “What the hell have you been doing to not even set foot outside the village? I was outside the village 10 minutes after creating my character!” Riley gets depressed immediately at those words. “Well it’s not from lack of trying, I’ll tell you that much. It started out innocently enough! I just wanted to get some lessons with a bow and a few tips on how to hold a dagger in case an enemy got too close!” After explaining the tragedies Riley faced at the hands of the horrible monster known only as Dali Bloodteeth, The 3 friends did their best to comfort him. “Shit man! I knew NPC’s could change the rules in a duel for training purposes, but this?” Franz nods in agreement to Luke’s words. “Yea, that’s just plain cruel and unusual punishment.” Gert shrugs her shoulders. “Seems reasonable to me though.” Riley, Luke, and Franz all glare at her. “Shame Gert! Can’t you find any sympathy for poor Riley here? Just look at him! He is clearly upset by this!” Gert rolled her eyes at Franz’s theatrics. “Oh come off it. Didn’t you hear Riley? He got to level 7 in Dagger Mastery for a few hours of work. Most players are lucky to break through level 3 after 4 hours of constantly fighting monsters in the starting zones. Riley clearly got a huge boost for his efforts.”

Riley was about to go on about how painful it is to get stabbed for several hours in a row when Franz cleared his throat. “Don’t you guys want to know what my character is?” Luke laughed while elbowing Francis in the side. “Ha! Sorry pretty boy, lemme guess. You went with a human paladin and devilishly handsome looks, didn’t you?” Francis blushed furiously but still managed to keep his voice steady as he replied. “I will admit, that I was tempted to do precisely that, but after a bit of looking around, I was intrigued with another possibility. I stumbled across the Fae. They have an interesting racial. It’s called Glamour and what it does is allows you to create minor illusions such as changing your features to seem more appealing or making it so people don’t pay attention to you. Its chance for success is all based on the charisma stat which is a stat I always like to invest a bit in. I decided to invest in dexterity as well and after finding a rapier, become a sort of fencer type of fighter.” Riley widened his eyes at that. “Wow Franz, that sounds like it’s right up your alley. Yet at the same time, different enough that for you to be a completely new way of playing this kind of game.” Luke laughed some more. “Yea Mr. Pretty Boy! Now not only will the ladies be all over you, but the men will too! Noble type NPC’s are all about challenging people to duels and shit… Whoa, dude! What if playing like this, you could become a rich noble player! That would be awesome! You should totally go for it! You always had a good head for politics!” Franz furrowed his brow in thought. “That actually does sound pretty fun. Thanks for the tip Luke, I will certainly see if there is any merit to your argument.” Luke gave Francis a big thumbs up. “No problem dude! I’m just glad you aren’t sticking to the cliche paladin bullshit.”

At that moment the class bell rang, bringing the friendly discussion to a reluctant end. Riley grabbed his bag and headed towards the cafeteria. “See ya later guys! Get some levels and clear the starting area! Maybe you can join me in a few days in the forest near my starting zone!” Before Riley got too far, Luke called back, “Hey, what town did you start in!” Riley was about to reply when he realized something. “Shit! Sorry, Luke! I got so excited about playing the game last night that I forgot to check the name of my own damn village! I’ll send you a message tonight or tomorrow whenever I find out!” All three of Riley’s friends burst out laughing at his blunder and Riley couldn’t help but blush as he quickly jogged towards his first class of the day.

Evan wiped the sweat from his brow, careful not to knock the hard hat off his head. Work was progressing a lot more quickly now since the workers that hadn’t shown up for work first thing started trickling into the work area. He had been using a heavy duty bolt driver on the scaffolding to pound bolts into the main support structure of the skyscraper to be. I’m glad we don’t have to drill holes into these beams anymore and line them up for bolts that way. Things go so much faster with a bolt gun. Just pull the trigger and it shoots the bolt straight through the steel and seamlessly meshes the two beams together. Now if only it could screw the nuts on the other side as well. Things would go so much faster. Evan waited patiently as his partner fed nuts onto the freshly driven bolts and tightened them with a gun of his own. Once his partner stepped to the side Evan would drive another bolt through the steel beam and His partner would feed on another nut, thus the cycle would continue until their task was completed. As more workers trailed into work his boss contacted him on the Radio piece in his ear asking him to report to the main building. Radios may be old technology, but for a job like this, they were still useful. He handed off the bolt driver to a nearby crew member so he could take over for him and made his way down the scaffolding towards the main office on the ground floor to report to his boss. 15 minutes later He stepped through the door and removed his hard hat to let some air flow through his sweat saturated hair.

“Yo boss, you called me?” Evan said as he stepped into his boss’s room. A portly man with a thick beard and square jaw glanced up from his computer. “Hey, thar Evan. Hows ya feelin ‘bout now? Been working pretty demn hard for most o th’ day.” Evan grinned at his boss’s hidden compliment. The man was crude, gruff, and it was harder to get a compliment out of him then it was to milk an angry badgercat, but when you did get a compliment, you know you did damn fine work. “I’m a little tired, but nothing a good night’s rest won’t fix. Why? You need something done?”

The man grinned at Evan’s words “Naw. Quite da awpohzit, really. The rest of the slackers ‘ave finally started draggin ass back to work and I plan on grindin thar bones tah dust so thay think twice ‘bout comin ta work late again. Problem is, you work to demned good. You would make things too easy on dese lazy sacks o shite. How ‘bout you take da rest o da day off and get some rest.” Evan couldn’t help but smile even more. “Sure thing boss. Just don’t kill them with all that extra work, they aren’t as tough as you, you know?” The boss waves away Evan’s words “Baaah! They can stand fer a little tuffin’nin up. It’d be good fer dem. Have a good day Evan.” “Later boss!” Evan called back, then stepped out of the office, clocking out as he passed the door.

“Now, what should I do for today? Oh! I know! I can make some good ol BBQ bacon Ribs for dinner tonight! Riley would love that!” With that idea in mind, Evan decides to do a bit of shopping. The first thing he does once he gets home is make his special BBQ blend of sauce. “As mom always said, ‘a good BBQ sauce is more than just a smoky aftertaste you throw on your meat. You also have to think about the other flavors you could blend in and emphasize the flavors of the meat itself.’ She made some good sauce but Riley always like my own special blend” Evan grabs a few peppers and dices them up along with some garlic and butter. After adding a couple extra ingredients to the bowl he mixes it all together and throws the ribs into the mix to marinate. He then mixes a separate bowl with similar ingredients to the first but changes the peppers out for a spicier variety. Once he finishes mixing the bowl he separates the slices of bacon and submerges them into the second bowl of ingredients for marinating. After washing his hands Evan sits down in front of the TV to pass the time until Riley got home and he would start cooking. Just as he plops down on the couch, he hears some noise coming from Riley’s room. Evan turns around in his seat just in time to see the mechanic, Oscar Maladay, step out of Riley’s room. “Fucking shit!” Riley shouts and falls on his ass. Standing up to regain his footing he sees Oscar his heart in what must have been a similar heart attack. “Shit man! Have you been in here the whole time?! You scared the crap out of me! What are you doing in my apartment?” Oscar seems to pale for a second by he quickly regains his composure. “W-well I didn’t know you were in here either, aren’t you home early? You scared me half to death there. I thought I was about to be mugged or something.” Evan rolled his eyes. “Why I’m home early is none of your business. I asked what you're doing in my apartment. No one was here to invite you in, and I didn’t receive a notice that you would be visiting today.” Oscar clears his throat before replying. “Y-yes, sorry about that, there wasn’t really time to send a notice. I got a notice that there were some power fluctuations somewhere on this floor and I was going room to room testing the circuitry for any frayed wiring or such. Sending a notice to every room and waiting for the occupant's reply would have taken too long and having to check each room according to every tenant's schedule would have been a hassle. I just finished up in here so I'll be leaving now.” Evan nodded and watched as Oscar stepped out the door. Hmm. Riley is right, that guy IS a bit creepy. With that thought, Evan sat back down on the couch and watched a few shows to pass the time while the meat marinated.