The next morning, Darin got his first introduction to the lounge. He’d envisioned a bar, drinks, seating and maybe some music. He hadn’t really realized what was needed to keep a quarter million people happy and occupied for hours. How it started, was not at all like he expected.

There he was, in his glorious splendor as a level 2 whelp. A notification warned of the system downtime, and created an accompanying timer. At 30 seconds, no new combat could be initiated. At 20 seconds, all fighting had ceased and players could not change areas. By 10 seconds the NPCs had all frozen, though Greed still winked at him. And in the last few seconds, Darin himself was unable to move. A bright white light enveloped him and when it cleared, he found himself laying in his back in a fake stasis unit. He could tell it was fake, as he’d just gotten into the real one less than a week ago. The fact that he wasn’t vigorously emptying all the nano-gel from his lungs, confirmed he was still virtual. After the hardware was done tilting him upright, the transparent lid slid away allowing him to step free. A simple plaque on the opposite wall welcomed him to the lounge. Below it a count down informed him the server would be down for 3 hours, 59 minutes and 30 seconds. Oh, joy.

“I guess I’ll take a look around.” He announced. Given that there was only one exit, it seemed a pretty simple choice. Much to his relief, walking came naturally and he didn’t miss when he reached for the button to open the door. Beyond it was a 30 foot long hallway, with walls of metal so shiny that they made perfect mirrors. Darin paused to look himself over, not from vanity but from curiosity. He looked exactly as he had when he got into the bio-stasis unit, stubble and all. “Interesting. I guess they want to make sure we don’t forget who we really are.” He pondered aloud, taking a moment to run his fingers over the stubble.

“Would you prefer to appear without the stubble?” A disembodied voice inquired. He thought for a moment, and declined. He wasn’t here to find the love of his life, he had no illusions of that happening. Especially not when he expected to live another several hundred years, before even having the option of starting a family. How many couples would be complete strangers, by the time they arrived at a new home? The worst he had to worry about was an estranged sister, no real loss in his books.

The other end of the mirrored hall opened into an elevator. Once he entered, the door closed behind him. A few taps on the interface terminal and he was stunned at the extensive list of options. “If they can offer over 10,000 types of game rooms, are they really using the Cores on updating the game?” He asked.

“Yes. But up to 10% of the Cores are used to keep the players occupied and happy. And because the simulations are typically shared between multiple users, we are able to save on overhead. Mainly by reusing bits of stimuli and sensation.” Replied the same phantom voice as before. He jumped in surprise, then chided himself. If the voice was in one section it was likely to be in all of them.

“Interesting. And if I were to get something to eat, you would simulate real food textures and flavors?”

“The level of realism would depend upon the quality of the item you purchased. Quality varies from decorative, up to full realism. To preempt your next question, items in the lounge are purchased with credits. You get 10 credits upon character creation and 1 per subscription Core each game day. You currently have 40 credits.” It explained.

“Credits can only be used in the lounge?” Darin asked, checking for odd clauses.

“Correct, though there is a store in the lounge which will sell minor In Game boosters, for rather high prices. Would you like to visit the store?”

“No. Take me somewhere I can get food and drink. I’ve had a rather limited dietary selections these last few days. I could use a treat.” He replied. The elevator hummed and the lights on the sides simulated movement. When the door opened, he saw around 40 people milling about a small cafe. Instead of a waiting staff, there were vending machines against the far wall. He was curious to see what they had, but he already knew he didn’t want steak, potatoes or hot chocolate. No one gave him more than a casual glance, until he stopped in front of gold plated vending machine. The old joke being, that good food was worth it’s weight on gold. A few minutes later, and many credits lighter he was sitting down with his bounty.

“Ah, so good.” Darin murmured, after biting a slice of gourmet 5 cheese pizza. Warm cheese, rich sauce, and a deep dish crust. It tasted like paradise after a few days of living as a dragon. There were probably good meals to be found somewhere in game, but he hadn’t come across them yet. Sure, he’d found steak fast enough. But eating five pounds of steak in a sitting, with no seasonings or condiments tended to dull the experience. “Sucks being a carnivore.” He told himself, before taking a long draw of good beer from a permanently frosty mug.

“Pardon?” Asked an older man hovering around his table, drawn in by the smell. Darin looked up suddenly, and realized he had drawn a crowd. Looking down at his table, he realized that with a pizza, a cheesecake and a pitcher of beer…the seasoned fries might just have been overkill.

“Oh. Thinking aloud, sorry.” He apologized, but the man didn’t move away and the silence grew awkward. “Is there something you need?” He asked, a few moments later.

“Well, most people don’t order that much food for just themselves. But you don’t seem to be waiting on anyone. Food only lasts so long on timers, but everyone nearby smells it. So either you are very hungry, very sadistic, or very new…” He explained.

“Ah sorry about that. Very new, I just got back in from top side and started playing. Very hungry too, I wound up with some dietary restrictions and not a lot of choices have opened up yet.”

“Well if you’re going to eat all of that.” The man said gesturing to his feast. “I’ll leave you be, but I know you can’t order just a slice of the high end stuff.” He waited for Darin to nod. “That’s why most folks shop around and buy as a group, or see if others are interested and resell portions at part of the cost.”

“Interesting. Which means…I just broke social rules right from the start.” Darin said, earning him a few laughs. “Well if you’re interested, then pull up a chair. I’m willing to part with the other slices of pizza at a fair price each, especially if you’ll tell me more about the game. The beer is mine though.” He added with a grin.

“And the cheesecake?” Asked an older lady with warm eyes and a few gray hairs.

“As long as I get to try a slice, before the rest gets sold off. I can live with that. Especially if I got to learn more about the game world.” He told her in good spirits. Much to his surprise, several chairs were scraped across the floor to his now packed table.

“Call me Fred. And that lovely lady there, getting ready to kill for a slice of premium cheesecake, is my wife Jane. We play a pair of Dwarfs, down in the under city of Blue End. If you ever get down our way, I can cut you a fair deal on ores.” While Fred talked, he and the others seemed to be tapping on the table rather than reaching for the food.

“I’m Darin, and I have no idea if I’ll ever get down to Blue End.” He told them, they looked shocked for a moment. “I’m a Dragon, only a little whelp if truth be told. So it may be some while before they even let me out of the nest. And then I’ll have to explore of visit a neutral starter town, before I can ever think of finding other cities.”

“Ah, yes. No wonder you’ve never heard of it then. But if you’re in the far south, it’s a pretty big trade hub.” Fred replied. Once he finished typing on the table, a trade window displayed on the table top for Darin. To his surprise, several more followed. He read a few of them over, agreeing one by one until he got to Jane’s.

“Wait, you’re offering 4 credits for the entire cheesecake?” Darin asked, expecting she made a mistake.

“Can you blame a gal for trying?” She asked with a shameless grin. Darin was about to reply when her husband beat him to it.

“Yes! I swear, you’ve been playing a shop keeper too long, woman.” Fred grumbled. For the next several minutes, Darin ate fries and sipped beer. All the while, Fred and Jane continued to prove they could bicker like an old married couple. If they were this good at it now, he really didn’t know what to expect down the line. Once they’d had a few hundred extra years to practice, that is.

While they bickered, he continued to trade off spare food and even stopped to make Jane a counter offer. When it showed up, she stopped mid insult to read the trade window. Fred waited, seeming more amused than angry, with his wife’s sudden shift in focus. “You drive a Hard bargain.” She said a few moments later, looking at Darin.

“I drive a Fair bargain.” He replied with a wide grin. She laughed, accepted the deal. Wasting no time, she grabbed a fork and started in on dessert.

“That’s one way to shut her up.” Fred teased. She stopped, fork half way to her mouth and glared for a moment. After a moment she huffed at him and took the bite, taking her time to savor it.

“You just wait Fred. This cheesecake has a timer, but you are a different story. I can tan your old goat hide any old day.” She threatened. Despite her harsh words, her eyes were twinkling with suppressed laughter. There was a lot of love between them, with a lot of play fighting for fun. I wonder what that’s like. Noticing his expression change, Fred turned his attention back to his host.

“Got a lass of your own, or one you’re waiting on?” Fred asked. When Darin sighed, he knew he’d hit the right button at least.

“Mister sensitivity, as ever.” Jane muttered, causing her husband to shrug.

“Well, not exactly. I had something going, for a bit while I was topside. But that wasn’t quite the same.” Darin admitted.

“Oh! A steamy affair in your real bodies? A romantic sneaking about while on duty? Or was it more of a tragic unrequited love?” Jane asked, quiet excited and eager now that the topic was dear to her heart. In the process she’d managed to draw the attention of half the room. Great, one of those type of people.

“Couldn’t contain yourself a bit, could ya?” Fred asked her. She had the good graces to blush and look away.

“Nothing like that really.” Darin began. “Sara was another tech, but it wasn’t romantic or anything of the sort.” That earned him a few odd looks, and a lot of silent questions. “It was really a matter of convenience. There are few people topside. I was there, single and male. So after shift, she’d drop by every few weeks for a night. We both needed the company and any stress relief didn’t hurt after 12 hour days.”

“Not buying that one.” Jane declared. “There are several hundred people topside at any give time. Don’t pull a ‘so lonely’ line on me lad. I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“How about I put it in perspective. You said Blue End is a major trade hub, right?” Darin asked. Those near him nodded. “So if you took Blue End for size scale, you’d probably need to include a mile around it.” He explained, trying to get them to visualize something the size of the Long Shot.

“And?”

“Now strip out all the NPCs that can talk or give quests. Get rid of any animals, because they’d just take up life support. Pull out the mobs, because they wouldn’t apply.” He instructed, painting a bleak picture. “Now, limit the player population in that whole area to about a thousand. Then shuffle them around the area, so that they can tend to the different things, like crops and stores.”

“That would be a bloody ghost town, we’d barely ever run into one another.” Fred commented, looking a bit pale. The others seemed to dislike the idea as well.

“I spent two years topside. I can tell you that yes, it really is as bleak as it sounds. And yes Jane, under those conditions, I really didn’t care how she treated social interactions.”

The conversations drifted on, to more pleasant game related topics, and continued long after the food was gone. By the time the server reopened, his contacts list had two new additions. Much to his chagrin, he had to return to his fake pod in order to return to the game. It had been nice to interact with people, real people, for a change. As the fake pod sealed and began to tilt back, one final thought crossed his mind.

“Oh Shit, I forgot to research the trials!”

- - - - -

Author’s Note: Trouble posting again. Thanks for the feedback and encouragement!

Not sure why. If I get close to 2000 words or go past it, I end up spending 15 minutes just to get it to post. *sighs*