'I'm going to be a dungeon!'

Kevin indulged in his victory shuffle as the elevator descended from New Realities offices. 'Thirty grand as a signing bonus!' he thought gleefully. Walmart hadn't been bad to him in the grand scheme of things, and he'd pulled in almost forty-eight thousand dollars last year, but if he could keep even half his servers initial subscribers, it would be a raise. If he kept all of them, it would come close to tripling his income. 'Also,' Kevin thought as the floor clicked down to the garage 'I'll be doing something more with my life than being a stock boy'.

His inability to gain employment in his chosen field was a source of friction between himself and his friends, his mother, and even his coworkers. Kevin knew he had a chip on his shoulder about it, but he couldn't seem to let it go. He'd gone in for a real, sensible degree. More, he'd done well, academically. Kevin had graduated with distinction, in the top ten out of over a hundred in the engineering program. And while the University of South Florida wasn't an Ivy League school, it was still a solid school. But still, he'd been unable to find a job in his field. Part of it, Kevin knew, was because he wasn't willing to relocate. He'd constrained his search to the Tampa Area, although he'd recently extended his search as far south as Port Charlotte, north to Ocala, and east to Apopka. All to no avail. But now things were finally looking up.

The sun was going down as Kevin rolled into his driveway dropping into neutral as he smashed a thumb on the garage door opener. As the door smoothly rose, he felt his previously exultant mood dip. Instead of a pristine concrete square, his half of the garage was somewhat occupied by Julie's beat-up old Explorer, and what might best be described as an avalanche of laundry that spilled from the washer/dryer area into his parking spot. Kevin eased his bike into the garage, parking at an angle so as to avoid the laundry and the SUV. He blew out a sigh as he took off his helmet, hanging it up on his gear stand. 'I will not be pissed off' he mentally chanted 'being pissed off does not help'. He pulled off the rest of his gear and hung it on the stand before walking around the laundry and heading into the house, trying to retain his good mood.

Julie was a slob. No two ways about it, the girl was just a mess. But, she paid her rent and her share of the utilities more or less on time, and they'd been friends since his first year of college when they'd been partnered together in English Comp. Despite her petite figure, she was also a human garbage disposal and could be counted on to keep the fridge clean of any leftovers, even if she had to be exhorted and cajoled to wash the dishes. Kevin paused as he entered the living room. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He counted down from ten. It didn't help. He counted down from fifty. Still no success.

He opened his eyes back up and took in the disaster that had formerly been his living room. Red solo cups were piled on the coffee table, the end tables, the tv stand, and had gathered into small drifts on the floor. There had to have been over a hundred of them, and it was clear that not all of them were empty. Half a dozen empty bottles stood on the coffee table, primarily rum and vodka. He could see a small pool of what he desperately hoped was rum pooled on the floor and was once again profoundly grateful for the decision to go with tile over carpet. But the source of his irritation lay on the couch. And the loveseat. And one of the easy chairs.

"Jesus fucking christ" Kevin muttered as he picked his way around the mess. He navigated around to the couch to the walkway into the kitchen, sparing it only a brief glance to confirm that it had not escaped the alcohol-induced apocalypse. He took his time to evaluate the situation. Yep. There were three people passed out in his living room, completely bereft of clothing. Despite the pillow over his head, Kevin was able to recognize Dave. He wasn't proud of the fact that he could pick Dave's twig and berries out of a lineup, but the sad truth was over the past six years he'd seen his friend naked on a far too frequent basis. The two girls he didn't recognize at all.

He closed his eyes again and started counting down from one hundred, this time adding a mantra to each count 'Julie is my friend, we don't murder our friends'. Feeling calmed a bit, he turned away from the living room and carefully walked down the hallway to his bedroom. He had gotten an amazing, life-changing job, and he wasn't going to let one of Julie's drunken parties turned Caligula fuck his calm. He had his credentials, courtesy of the packet Glenda had given him, and after he called his boss to let him know he had accepted another job offer, he was going to get to work on his dungeon. Then he opened his bedroom door.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Julie's head jerked and her eyes opened as some sort of dinosaur roared in her ear. She reflexively snapped her eyes shut and covered her ears, her head pounding from the noise, the bright light that stabbed into her skull, and the hangover that only came from a party that had gotten out of hand.

"Too loud.." she whimpered as she tried to bury her head into the pillow. Weird pillow. Smelled like Kevin. She paused her attempts to hide from the world. Cracking her eyes open ever so slightly, wary of the death rays from the day-star, she saw unending blue. Which was weird. She had pink sheets, and white sheets, and sunshine yellow sheets, but she didn't have blue sheets. Kevin had blue sheets. He was such a mudge. Three sets of sheets, all the same color. The roaring voice suddenly clicked in her mind, and she sat up staring at vaguely human blob that slowly resolved itself into the familiar form of her best friend.

"Kevin?" Julie asked as she tried to fight through the hangover. It was too much. She fell back and covered her face with the pillow. The roaring had stopped. That was good. She heard movement, the rustle of fabric across the room, and then from a distance, running water. Soon after, she felt the world move a bit, and the pillow was lifted from her face. Julie gave a distressed mewl, fearing the return of the day-star, but Kevin had apparently pulled his curtains, and the room was blessedly dim. She cautiously opened her eyes, to find Kevin sitting next to her, holding a glass of what she presumed was water and a couple of orange tablets that were likely the ibuprofen he favored.

"You're gonna need this" Kevin said in a soft voice as he encouraged her to take a sip of water, and then take the pills. Julie drank the rest of the glass and then fell back. An indeterminate amount of time later, she felt as if life might yet be worth living, and opened her eyes again. She sat up and swung around to put her feet on the floor. She scanned the room and saw Kevin sitting at his desk, quietly typing on his keyboard. His desk. She looked around the room again. Kevin's room. She looked down at the bed. Kevin's bed. At this point, she realized she was naked. As casually as possible she reached out to the bed, hunting for a sheet. Kevin glanced up and grinned at her. "You're gonna need to find it first because it isn't in my room." Julie sighed. She had fucked up. They had one overarching rule, one understanding, that as roommates was inviolate. Bedrooms were off-limits, save for invitations. Kevin had never broken that rule. Sadly this wasn't the first time she had done so. Still, he didn't seem quite as upset as he should have been. Maybe she could just tease her way out of this one.

She stood up and stood, feet together before slowly stretching her arms up above her, getting in a good stretch, and giving Kevin a bit of a show at the same time. She smiled down at him, noticing that as always, he didn't ogle her tits, let alone focus his gaze lower. He just sort of waited for her to stretch, and then glanced over at his bed. She followed his gaze and saw to her horror the used condom that lay the side of the other pillow, its contents staining the sheets below. "Fuck" she muttered. "It would seem so" Kevin replied.

Kevin stood up, turning off his monitor. "So, I'm going to grab Thai food," he walked to the bedroom door and went on without turning around "and when I get home, we'll eat, and talk about it". Julie sat down on the bed with a thump. She heard the garage door open, and then Kevin's bike startup. She fell back on Kevin's bed and sighed. Kevin was pissed. He had this thing where his room was some sort of sacred space. She looked around. He had decorated his room sparsely. His degrees were framed and hung on the wall. Opposite that he had framed an old video game poster for "Altered Phantasy", and beyond that, he just had his desk, couch, and dresser.

Considering this was the master bedroom, he had a ton of empty space, and she'd made a few arguments over the years that he really should let her have it. Still, it was his space. Kevin was more than a bit introverted, and while he was funny and engaging, Julie knew that he had a set amount of energy for social interactions and once it was empty he needed to be in his space to let it recharge. She privately thought that Kev was probably a little bit autistic, which made his ability to put up with her antics amazing.

"No use putting it off," she muttered as she stood up and reached over, grabbing the condom. She walked down the hallway and opened her bedroom door. Julie stopped. She blinked. She grinned. Well, now she knew why she ended up in Kev's bed. She walked over to her bed, dropped the condom in her trash can, and lowered her head down towards her other best friend Melody's ear. "Oh, My Gawd" she shouted, jumping back as Mel predictably shot up, panicking. Melody grabbed her head, groaned and then glared at her. "Why do you hate me?" Melody grumbled, "And why are you naked?" she asked. Julie just smiled and waited. Melody took the hint and looked around, recognizing her best friends bedroom. She didn't recognize the man lying in bed next to her as he clutched a pillow over his head. "I see you made a friend" Julie teased as Melody fished her panties and a t-shirt off the floor. "Hey lover boy," Julie said loudly, raising a groan from the still prone man "rise and shine, you're in my bed and I gotta clean up." Julie grabbed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from her dresser, and quickly left to the bathroom, intent on a shower and not really wanting to get a full frontal of Mel's new guy.

Twenty minutes later Julie was out of the shower and feeling almost human. Melody had retreated to the kitchen and was sitting despondently in one of the chairs, nursing a glass of water. Julie grabbed one for herself, and plunked down in the chair across from Mel, giving the kitchen a considering gaze. No wonder Kev had gone out to get dinner. He rarely ate out, and Julie would be the first to admit that he was a dazzling cook. She wasn't sure where he'd picked it up, as he'd often joked that his mother could burn water, and his father fed his flock spiritually, after having given them all literal food poisoning one thanksgiving. Somehow though, Kev was awesome at it.

She focused on Melody, and with a deep breath confided in her friend "I fucked up." Melody glanced around the kitchen, and then into the living room. "I'll help clean up... I think that's Dave? He's good to help too" she volunteered. "Yeah, that'll be a start, but it isn't the mess," said Julie. "I woke up in Kev's bed." Melody's eyes widened. She knew the rules, she spent more time here than at her parents' house, where she still technically lived. "Dude... how pissed is he?" Melody asked. Julie took a drink of water, and looked down at the table as she said: "Um, I didn't just sleep in his bed, based on the used condom on his pillow, I'm pretty sure I fucked someone in his bed". Melody choked on her water spraying a bit onto the table. "Dude!" Melody said. "I know," Julie sighed "I really fucked up." "No," Melody replied "you went way beyond fucking up, that's just ... I don't know...". "Yeah," Julie nodded "I'm not sure how he's going to take this, I mean he's remarkably cool about the parties, and the occasional naked people," she glanced in the living room seeing that Dave had woken up at their voices and was clearly struggling towards coherence "and the general hot mess that is my life, but I crossed a line." Melody nodded back "You're in it for sure, but if we get everyone clothed and the mess picked up it might help soothe the savage beast." Julie nodded, and resolutely stood up, grabbing the ridiculously empty garbage can as she started stacking empty cups together. "Dave!", she yelled behind her towards the living room, "get your clothes on, wake up those two and start cleaning up!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin grimaced as he pulled back into his garage. He hadn't gone directly to Thai Palace, needing some time and space to clear his head. He'd wound up just riding north on 301 for an hour and change, trying to get his head in a better place. After an hour of the soothing hum of the engine, the reassuring freedom of the open road, the cooling night air, and the peace that he had found only the bike, his thoughts had turned towards his dungeon. He found himself starting to plan it out, but he couldn't really get very far without seeing the tools he had available. So, he turned around and headed back to grab dinner, then get home and start working.

But now, as he pulled into the garage and saw the pile of laundry, his mood darkened again. Stripping his gear, he grabbed two bags of Thai food from his tank bag and stalked into the house. Surprisingly, his living room was devoid of not only empty cups and liquor bottles but also naked guests. Continuing on to the kitchen, he was further surprised to find it had been cleaned as well. Taking the containers out of the bags, he yelled: "Julie, dinner is here!". He snagged a pair of glasses of water and sat down. As he was opening the containers, having given up long ago trying to read the hieroglyphics Thai Palace used to label what was in which, Julie and Melody wandered into the kitchen.

"Hey Mel," Kevin said as he nodded to table "grab a glass and sit down, I brought plenty". Melody shot him a grin and did exactly that, sitting down to his right, before snagging a box of white rice and attacking it. Julie sat down across from him, started fiddling with a box of what turned out to be chicken curry, as Kevin asked: "Dave take off?". Julie nodded as she replied, "Yeah, he helped clean up first, but he has to work tonight." Kevin considered Dave a friend, although he was more Julie's than his. Still, they got along pretty well, bonding over their shared misery of having degrees they weren't using, Dave's being in History and Education. Dave hadn't been able to secure a teaching position yet and worked overnights as a security guard while he did the occasional tour as a substitute while he waited for one of the high schools to snag him for a permanent position.

"So Mel, what's the good word in your world?" Kevin asked. Melody swallowed, pausing her brutal campaign of white rice annihilation and responded "Deep Delve baby," she grinned at him "two more weeks and I'm gonna fucking disappear. I've had my vacation time approved, so you bitches ain't gonna see me for a week!". Kevin couldn't help but laugh. Melody was the perfect example of 'Tiny, but fierce'. She stood at just under five feet and weighed less than a hundred pounds. He knew this because she often complained that she was half an inch too tall to be able to get a handicapped sticker and thus awesome parking and that a stiff breeze would blow her away. She also cursed and drank like a sailor, with a fervor that entirely belied her pixie-like appearance. She was also the most hardcore gamer of all his friends.

"Fuck yeah, up high!" He said, reaching out to give her a high five. Melody slapped his hand and then returned to her decimated box of rice. "You still in Kev?" Melody asked, between bites. Kevin pushed another container of rice over to her, knowing she wasn't going to be satisfied with just one, as he nodded "Yep. I'm not taking a vacation for it, but I've got my copy pre-ordered." Having located his shrimp curry, which was inevitably in the last box, he dove into his dinner, enjoying the heat of the curry. Dinner was consumed in silence at this point, as hangovers and long days conspired to make feeding empty stomachs the priority.

As dinner wrapped up, Melody stood up, trashed her empty boxes and with a grin and a "Smell ya later bitches", walked out the front door, leaving Julie and Kevin alone. "So..." Julie said, "This is awkward". Kevin sat back and looked at her. He had found, over the years, that the most effective strategy when dealing with Julie was to let her say her piece. "Yeah, awkward," she sighed as she continued "look, I know bedrooms are off-limits, and I know being drunk isn't a good excuse," she rambled on, "and I know having sex in your bed was really disrespectful, and I'm sorry" she finished miserably. Kevin took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and counted down from fifty. Julie watched, and waited - she knew this was how Kevin handled unpleasant or stressful conversations. Opening his eyes, Kevin arranged his thoughts before speaking. "It was very disrespectful. I'd like to think that, within my limitations, I'm a pretty understanding friend and roommate. I try not to give you too much grief about the messes, the parties, the naked strangers in my house." He paused before continuing "And I know we've had our own complications."

Here Julie blushed and looked down at the table. When she had first met Kevin, he had developed a bit of a crush on her. He was pretty cool about it, he let her know he found her attractive, and he'd like to explore being more than friends, but he didn't get creepy or pine after her. He'd dated another girl, and she hadn't thought about it much. She ended up moving in with him once he finished renovating the condemned house he had purchased his freshman year, and things had been smooth for about six months. Then, at one of the frequent parties she held, they'd both gotten tipsy, and wound up in bed together. That probably wouldn't have been too bad, except she had just gotten out of a relationship, and she had ended up crying while they were having sex. That had well and truly messed up Kevin from an emotional standpoint. It nearly ended their friendship.

Kevin had eventually moved past it, but it still haunted them a bit. He didn't really date anymore. He would occasionally hook up with someone, but it always understood that it was a one-night thing. Julie dated and hooked up as well, and Kevin was cool, he joked with her and never showed any sign of jealousy. Julie knew he was more than a little fucked up from that experience. But he seemed reached the point where he just couldn't bring himself to care. Years of living with Julie had destroyed any sort of idealization he had about women, and aside from the occasional urge to fuck, he didn't appear to have any special use for the fairer sex beyond their worth as human beings. Still, Julie fucking someone in his bed clearly bothered him. As these thoughts progressed through her mind, Julie sat quietly at the table.

This reminded her too much of the conversation they'd had two weeks after 'The Incident'. She'd spent those two weeks begging and occasionally screaming at him to talk to her, while effectively being ignored. She understood Kevin better now, and knew he was thinking, and weighing his words. Finally, he went on "This isn't the first time you've ended up in my bedroom, although the condom and pool of cum on my bed is a new one." Julie winced. Kevin had a habit of using the truth and directness as a weapon when he was angry. "I know if you were sober, it wouldn't have happened. I've never given you shit about your lifestyle or your choices, but I'm going to say this - I think you have a drinking problem."

Julie started to speak but Kevin raised his hand, cutting her off. "I'm going to put a lock on my bedroom door because while I do trust you, it is clear I can't trust 'Drunk Julie' to respect me and my space." Julie closed her mouth when audible click, her eyes brimming with tears. Kevin stood up and looked her dead in the eyes "You're my friend, and I care about you. I think you need help. I'm not qualified to give it, and I'm to close be of any use. I've taken a job offer, and I'll be working from home now. I'm starting tonight. We'll talk tomorrow." With that, he walked to his bedroom, pulled his VR helmet on, and lay down on his couch. He needed to not dwell on that conversation, and getting started on his dungeon seemed like the perfect remedy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Julie watched her best friend head to his room, then she put her head down on the table crying. Kevin had always had an open-door policy. Whenever he was home, the front door was unlocked, and friends knew they could stop in and be welcome. Likewise, he never locked his bedroom door, and she had always been able to knock on his door and poke her head in to talk to him. Now it felt like he was locking her out of his life. She didn't really feel like she had a drinking problem. Sure, she drank, maybe more than most, but she was a realtor, and her job was stressful. She was young for her job, and while she made a living, she wasn't terribly successful yet, which led to more than a few months where she barely made her rent and bills.

So when she did well, she celebrated. Last night had just been a bit much. She'd closed a house in Clearwater yesterday, and not only had it been the largest commission yet, but it was also for a couple that had purchased their first house through her four years ago. That was huge, as repeat customers were the sign of a truly good realtor. Her boss had praised her, as had her coworkers, and with no showings this weekend, she had partied much harder than normal last night. She sniffled a bit as she wiped her eyes. She didn't remember much past playing guitar hero for shots, and alarmingly she didn't remember who she had taken to Kevin's bed. At least she knew they'd used protection. She winced. Kevin's comment about the puddle of cum on his bed was crude and direct and just awfully... true. She'd lived with Kevin for six years now, and he'd been nothing but a good friend to her.

Being a realtor, she knew that she paid a pittance in rent. She'd never asked him, but it was probably a quarter of the mortgage if that. He regularly fed her, to the extent that she shopped for groceries maybe once a month. He cleaned up far more of her messes than she did his, seldom complained, and when he did it was always gentle and reasonable. In return, she introduced him to people, and drug him out of his introverted cave to be social. It wasn't, she thought, an equitable arrangement. And now he'd gotten a new job. He'd probably come home, eager to share it with her, and found not only the house a disaster, but her having violated his sanctuary. Standing from the table, Julie shuffled to the garage to start the huge pile of laundry she'd left on the floor.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Robert was sitting on a picnic table at a rest area on I-10 heading west from Tallahassee. He had his helmet next to him and was sipping from a cold bottle of water as he watched the sunset. His plan was to throw up his tent behind this pavilion and catch some sleep before he meandered on. His eventual goal was Joshua Tree, although he knew he'd have to overnight in Texas somewhere. He sighed as his phone buzzed in his pocket, lamenting the fact that even on vacation he couldn't really escape it. With Deep Delve launching in two weeks, Robert didn't dare go completely incommunicado, as anything that came up at this stage was effectively an emergency. Glancing at the screen, he grinned. This was a message he could live with. Kevin had logged into the Deep Delve Development Environment Tool for the first time.

Robert was glad to see him logging in, but a little surprised that it had taken him this long. He had thought that Kevin would log in as soon as he'd gotten home, but it was a couple of hours later. Or so he assumed. Maybe the kid had plans for the evening that he hadn't wanted to break. He knew Kevin didn't have a girlfriend, although he did have a roommate who was a woman, however, the PI Robert had hired had reported there weren't any signs of a romantic relationship between the two. Shoving his phone back in his pocket, he grabbed his helmet and walked back to his bike, already looking forward to spending a night out under the stars.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin waited as the VR headset initialized. It took only a few seconds to do so, having been calibrated for his use when he bought it. That process had taken nearly an hour and was mostly spent with the helmet on, waiting in the darkness as it mapped out his brain or whatever dark sorcery it utilized. Soon enough, the 2d menu sprang into his vision, and he scrolled down to find a new icon labeled "D.D.D.T.". Selecting it with a wave of his hand, the words "Deep Delve Development Tool initializing" flashed across his vision. Then everything went black. And then he was flying.

The wind rushed across his face and he could taste the salt in the air as he saw the ocean pass beneath him, his shadow barely a speck on the gentle waves. Kevin had played a few superhero games and had flown before in VR, but this was just a whole other level. He looked down his arms, which were faithfully reproduced, and he could see each individual hair moving with the wind passing by as he flew. "This is AMAZING" he yelled as he flew towards a dark shape on the horizon, that quickly grew to reveal land. He didn't have any control of his flight or his direction. He could move his arms and legs, and sort of flip around, which he did, revealing a mostly cloudless sky of deep blue, the kind of sky he'd only ever seen in Montana and Idaho.

He flipped back over as he started to slow and descend towards the rapidly approaching ground. He jerked his head to the side as a seagull flew by, its raucous call echoed by a hundred of its fellows scattered about the area, lazing on the air currents. His feet touched down onto a rocky beach. 'God' he thought, 'everything is so real.' Kevin turned back to the ocean, took two hesitant steps, and then crouched down, dipping his hand in the water. It was cool, and it swirled around his hand as the tiny waves lapped at the beach. He lifted his hand and stared in awe as tiny droplets rolled off the back of his hand and dripped to the ground. "Fuck me," he breathed. "They have a license to print fucking money. This is incredible."

He stood up and walked away from the ocean, up the beach as it became more sand and fewer pebbles, and then crested a dune, to see what appeared to be acres of grass. In the distance were snow-capped mountains, surrounded by gradual hills. A silvery river snaked down from the mountains, and through hills, before following the grasslands to empty into the ocean a few hundred yards away. He walked down the dune into the grass, his hands trailing by his sides, letting them catch the stalks and pass them through his fingers as he ambled through the tall grass. He wandered through the grass for a few minutes, sticking to the dips rather than climb the small humps.

As he rounded the corner of a small hillock, his attention was captured by what was, to all appearances, a horse grazing in the tall grass. It noticed him at the same time and raised its head casting a curious glance at him. Kevin slowly walked towards the horse, which seemed curious, and reciprocated, walking towards him as well. They stopped a few feet away from each other. The horse was a paint, its coat white with gold and chestnut splotches. Large brown eyes, liquid and shining with curiosity regarded Kevin. Kevin completed the final step between the two as he slowly reached out and stroked the paint's muzzle. 'It's so soft' he thought to himself as he carefully took another step and started to stroke the horse's neck. The horse nickered appreciatively and leaned a bit into the petting as Kevin marveled at the sensation. He could feel every hair, the stiffer hair of the mane, and softer hair of the main coat. He could feel the dust as well, and even a bit of dampness where the mane had fallen and a bit of sweat had gathered. The horse lowered its head, seemingly accepting that Kevin wasn't a threat, and began grazing again.

Kevin continued to pet him, and after a few minutes, he noticed an almost imperceptible light on the edge of his vision. It was blinking slowly. As he focused on it, it snapped into clarity, showing a tab of sorts. Dusting his hands off, he paused, reveling in that action. His hands had actually gotten dusty, and, he squinted, yes, he'd even gotten a few hairs on his hands. "Unbelievable" he whispered as he made a swiping motion at the tab. The horse seemed a bit startled at his action, raising his head, and stepping away from Kevin, but then settled back down to graze. 'Well, that didn't work' Kevin thought. He concentrated on seeing the tab and it expanded out, a light green screen, slightly transparent filled the top right quadrant of his vision. "Welcome to Deep Delve's Developer's Tools!" read the screen, and below it were two options, the one on the right indicated "Start Dungeon Mode" the other "Continue in Explorer Mode".