Shelby winced as she opened her apartment door. Her roommate, Tara, stood up from her bulky gaming chair and snapped her 500$ neon headset in half with a primal scream. She held the destroyed headpiece and dangling microphone in front of her mouth and howled, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE BAILING ON ME?!"
Shelby tried to fade into the shadows of their shared living room, lit only by the cycling rainbow of LEDs flashing out from the many futuristic computers, tablets, and other streaming tools strewn about. She dropped her bag over the arm of their couch, set down a stack of library books on their console, stepped over a snarl of cords, and ducked around the corner into the small kitchen. She flipped on the lights and then froze, realizing her mistake too late. She turned slowly and Tara did the same. Tara's mouth was completely agape, frozen midway through a string of insults, and she looked Shelby dead in the eyes. She dropped the headset, and smiled, "Hey Shells, how was cramming?"
Shelby opened a cupboard, "I can't say I made a ton of progress... is Teddy not coming over tonight?"
Tara huffed, "He’s useless. Completely useless. He's got a ‘final’ that could ‘ruin his future’ tomorrow morning." She punctuated the words with dramatic scare-quotes dragged through the air and a whining imitation of her longtime boyfriend, Ted.
"Sorry Tara, didn't you have big plans? Something about a princess and castle?" Shelby asked.
"Big plans? ONLY THE BIGGEST EVER!" Tara snapped back to shouting in an instant. Shelby winced again. She dug through their cupboards and removed a large bag of flour and some granulated sugar, intent on making something to power her through the rest of the night. Study cake, she told herself.
As Tara ranted, her thin arms swooped violently around her as she gestured fervently. She paced back and forth in front of her elaborate desk, which she had insisted in setting up in their breakfast nook. She was barely visible over the breakfast bar. Shelby set up her stand mixer, microwaved some butter, and cracked a pair of eggs into a bowl. Tara kneeled on the seat of her gaming chair and kicked along the floor until she rolled into the kitchen, lamenting her lame boyfriend, "What is his DEAL? I WORKED SO HARD TO GET US INTO THE PRE-RELEASE! It's like he doesn't even CARE, Shells."
"If he wanted to be here, he would." She replied as she beat the eggs into two cups of milk.
"Yeah! He would! Now what am I gonna do? If he had told me this more than FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE THE GAME UNLOCKED! Ugh, I could have sold that extra rig for 50 big ones!"
Shelby looked up from her stirring, "Tara... how much did you spend on all of this?" She gestured to the two... things. The things that had showed up in massive shipping crates last week and now took up at least half their living room. They looked like... space eggs? Shelby wasn't a complete luddite, but these things were bizarre. She knew they were kind of like super home theaters, and she had heard that you felt completely detached from your body while you were in them, but she had never seen anything like them before. Tara was a mini... no, a micro-influencer for some gaming thing. Shelby would often come home from a late-night study session to find Tara and Ted reclined on opposite ends of the couch with their funny looking goggles on, controllers waving around the room, with their feet entwined. It was cute, in a nerdy sort of way, but... she bit her lip. Tara was a good, if overly exuberant, friend. If she wanted to spend egg time with Ted then good for her. She wished the movers had put them in Tara's room though. They seriously looked like Faberge eggs designed by Daft Punk. Tara rolled her eyes, "I won them, Shells. World first clear of Chasm of the Beyond? Ringing any bells?"
"Ohhh, riiight! I totally forgot you were the chasm master." Shelby performed a little bow as she ladled out a gloopy mess of off-white batter into a dented cake pan. She slapped her forehead, muttering "pre-heat", and turned the oven on. She turned back to Tara, "So you're, uh, you were gonna play Knights of Terror with Ted in the eggs?"
"Knights of Terra, and nah, Stormsys is holding a preview event for their new game tonight. Starchaser. It's their first MMO to use the Exo-Solera VR system. Blurgh, I was so excited!" Tara scooched across the kitchen floor in her chair until she was up against the small kitchen island counter separating the spaces. She flung her arms over the faux granite counter and rest her cheek against the tepid surface, utterly defeated.
"We can eat cake and watch some TV while I study." Shelby suggested. She strode around her limp roommate and picked up one of the heavy books she had brough home from the library. Applied Sociology.
"Oh, I'm still gonna play. You better believe that. I've been waiting 15 years for this game to come out! FIFTEEN!" she bounced back into her chair and snuck a finger into the bowl of cake batter on the counter, then she perked up, "you should play too, Shells."
Shelby barked out a laugh as she walked back into the kitchen and swept the bowl away from Tara, "Yeah, sure, let me know when they put Animal Crossing on those things."
"You'd love it!" Tara insisted, "There are all kinds of cute creatures, you can even play as one, and it's completely plugged in! You'll think you're there!"
Shelby rolled her eyes, "You know, I also have a final tomorrow morning, Tara. Well, at noon, but still,” she held up the book, “this sociology isn’t going to apply itself.”
Tara folded her arms, "Yeah? Is that 5002nd hour of studying gonna be the one that gets you an A plus plus plus plus? You gotta take breaks! Let all those facts stew for a night."
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Shelby screwed up her mouth. She really was tired of studying. She had just done a 6 hour sprint and was planning on jumping straight back in as soon as she had a, well-deserved, treat. She let the book fall out of her hand onto a particularly unlucky clementine, "How cute are these supposed creatures?"
Tara immediately held up her phone and showed Shelby an image of a bipedal rabbit wearing a dramatic red cape. It was swinging a scepter through a storm of sparkles and glitter. That was cute, damn it. This was a trap. Tara knew Shelby was a sucker for rabbits.
"... and I have to get in the egg?" Shelby pointed an accusatory finger towards the glowing orbs towering over their IKEA coffee table.
"I'll be right next door! Plus, you never play games with me! We can be egg friends!" Tara said.
The oven beeped, finally reaching baking temperature. Shelby slipped the metal baking form into the ancient oven and a thick drop of batter fell into the heating element. The room filled with the scent of burning flour. Shelby let the oven door slam closed and turned back to Tara, "You know what? Yes. I will play Star, um-" "Starchaser" "-Starchaser. Is this like a Star Wars thing?"
Tara shook her head, "it's more Lord of the Rings."
Shelby laughed, "Ohh, well why didn't you say so? If Tom Bombadil is there then I am there, obviously."
Tara clapped a few times, squealing out a "Yesss!" and reaching over piles of batter crusted dishes to grab Shelby by the wrist and drag her over to the egg. She slapped the side of the one in the far corner of their living room and it parted down the middle with a slight hiss. Shelby dug in her heels, "Wait, why is it hissing? Tara, it’s angry!"
"Those are good hisses, Shells. That's the fun escaping! Get in before it all gets away!" She said.
Shelby stepped over the lip of the glossy white base and sat down in a surprisingly plush full-backed chair inside the device. She looked around with skepticism. The inside was lined with a preposterous number of wires, tubes, metal disks, tiny screens, and speakers. There was no surface left bare. A suspiciously thick rubber seal ran around the sleek case's edge. Shelby gave Tara a flat look, "Am I going to have a freak out inside this thing? Are they going to find my mummy trapped in here two-thousand years from now?"
Tara gave her a thumbs-up, "Yes. One hundred percent. They’ll call you The Egg Pharaoh."
Shelby started to stand back up, but Tara rested her hands on Shelby's shoulders, sighing, "Just trust me! I guarantee you’re gonna play straight through the night! You’ve never had so much fun!"
“Forty-five minutes, max,” Shelby said as she leaned back, and Tara slapped the egg again. The shell began to close back in, and everything was dark for a long moment before an image of an endless field of flowers came to life all around Shelby. She looked left and right. Rolling hills extended out forever under a perfectly blue sky. Shelby felt a little dizzy.
She thought the chair must be moving to keep her vision steady or to compensate for what she was doing, or something. Come to think of it, she couldn’t even feel the chair. Ergonomics¸ she thought with a nod. She imagined taking a step forward, and the world moved around her. There was a crunch as a thicket of vivid blue flowers crumpled under her foot. She looked down and her foot was there. It wasn’t exactly her foot, but pretty close at least. She strolled, then sprinted down one of the flowery hills. Wind blew her hair back as soft petals tickled her shins. She was wondering how all this was even possible when a chime rang out and caught her attention. A little bubble with a red numeral one encircled within it popped up in the lower right hand of her field of vision. It stayed fixed just at the outer edge of what she could see as she turned in place, and it floated on top of everything as she waved her hands an inch in front of her face.
"Umm, hello? Open! Open... that message. S-siri?"
A soft blue bubble floated into the bottom-center of her field of view. It said:
It looks like you're trying to issue a verbal command. Try saying, or thinking, "Menu" to access the main menu or "Setup" to setup voice command shortcuts.
"Menu, please." Shelby said to the bubble.
The soft blue bubble split into a trio of rounded squares. One drifting to the left had a list of simple programs, like "Notes" and "Photos", although she also saw Starchaser's simple star shaped logo near the middle. In the center there was a mostly empty column with a single notification at the top. The right-hand side had the time, 7:59 PM, the current weather outside, and a calendar with a few small dots over some upcoming holidays. She looked at the notification and after half a second it expanded.
Message from Tara R. to Ted K.:
Tara R.: get on starchaser, quick!
Ted K.: I told you I have to study, Tara.
Tara R.: not you ted, shells is in your exo
Ted K.: Oh. Hi Shelly.
Ted K.: Message Hello Teddy Send Message.
Tara R.: you don't have to say send message just think about doing it
Ted K.: Message Oh, okay.
Ted K.: Not to be pushy but can you please get off my account? I'm studying. Future on the line here.
Tara R.: just think message shells
Ted K.: Message oh whoops, sorry Theodore.
Ted K.: Remove Ted.
Ted K.: Ted Account End.
Tara R.: it's sign out and you just need to think it
Ted K.: It's ‘Sign Out’.
User signing out.
Message ended.
Shelby closed the window with a thought after waving her hand around for a moment, looking for the ‘x’ button in vain. The screen prompted her to log in with any email. She entered her usual non-professional email that she had been using since the fourth grade, princesscat44, and the menu populated with a few more notifications and a trill of chimes:
• 4 Unread Messages
• 57,332 Unread Emails
• 1 Missed Call
• 3 Calendar Items
She ignored them all except for the messages, all from Tara:
Message from Tara R. to Shelby B.:
Tara R.: open starchaser! let's go!!!
Tara R.: how are you offline???
Tara R.: ohhh lol, i know
Tara R.: there you are. log on shells!!!
Shelby B.: I am, GEEZ! What's the rush?
Tara R.: the game launched 4 minutes ago! we only get 8 hours in the preview!
Shelby B.: Are you going to stay up until 4 am Tara???
Tara R.: OBVIOUSLY! GET IN THE GAME! I'M NOT WAITING ANYMORE!
Tara R. has changed her status to busy.
Message closed.
Shelby took one last look around the field before she directed her thoughts towards the Starchaser logo, and the egg faded back to darkness.