The store was packed. Nothing out of the ordinary though. In fact she’d expected it for the festival. It was something the Game Center had been hosting for years. Longer than she’d ever worked there and Asra was pushing into her sixth year. Of course, the first several were under the table gigs since hiring an eleven year old was against all current and former labor laws. Unless specifically granted perms by parents and local law that was. The local law part might not have been too hard, they generally threw those out like candy cause child labor was cheap. The parents bit was impossible.

  Either way, Asra had been working D&D cons every few months since she was eleven. Back then she’d skirt around the nearby malls, scrawny and dark haired, slapping QR stickers on everything and planting ideas about how cool D&D sounded in kids of the well to do upper classes. Not much had changed besides her position in the company. She’d been promoted from sneaky PR to one of the stooges running the show once she was legal. Or at least the metaphorical show, as all she basically did was direct people to their pods and make sure they were hooked up properly to the VR gear. The tech would take it from there.

  Her eyes moved across the collection of Aug monitors; glimpses of players traversed the realms flashing across her moniglass. She was tired, the convention was only in its first day. Meaning she had fours days left until she’d get time off. Though time off meant it was back to cram classes. She’d taken leave from those for the event. Assuming she could pay for another semester of them that was. The money from a convention like this wasn’t as good as it should have been.

  “It’s almost like you aren’t having a good time.”

  Asra glanced sideways, eyes fixing on Yash as a flicker of screens flashed across her moniglass. She fought the urge to shove the glasses up to get a better look at him as her eyes rolled.

  “I’m having a blast,” she stated. “Can’t you tell?”

  “Definitely.” An elbow poked at her arm gently. “You’re voice is dripping with excitement.”

  She moved her eyes back to the hall she was monitoring. To the naked eye there was nothing special about the center. It was large and empty besides the collection or large pods lining it. Most didn't look at it without moniglasses though, and the aug gear brought another layer of excitement to the mix. She couldn't see them with her company gear since it filtered them. The hall was actually painted with QRs though. There was probably thousands. All meant to be scanned by individuals aug so that ads would appear at the edges of their vision. Most were relevant souvenirs, tshirts and VR games. Companies made good money off the con but paid a lot for it also. It was worth it. She was in one of fifty halls, each holding one hundred of the newest VR pods in the industry with a person inside. Five thousand people. It was a good ad campaign for companies and the center. On top of their ads, every person had paid a good amount of credits for their spot. The five day event was easily over a 2M credit profit before fees from just that.

  “VR tech is so common place now that they could do this at home.”

  Yash’s voice hummed for a moment as he thought. She could feel him shifting, knowing he was probably crossing arms over his chest in his usual thoughtful way. How many times had she seen it in the years they’d worked together. Hundreds, no thousands of times probably. He’d worked there longer than her and was only a year or two her senior. That came with being related to the centers coordinator though. Yash had been enlisted to work even younger than she had as a family obligation.

"We're upgrade consoles this year," he stated. "I'm sure some are here because the pods are included in their ticket price."

"True."

  “Plus its a community thing,” he said.

"They aren't even talking or community-ing."

“People don’t gather in large numbers anymore though." She knew from his tone he had a stupid grin. Probably from her word usage. "I read that conventions were a very big thing before the pandemic.”

  “Back when they didn’t wear masks and stuff?”

  “Mhmm. The very time.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Habit brought her hand up to the mask that covered the bottom half of her face. It was a work model, one with decent filters and the company logo painted across the translucent glass. Of course it matched the company owned aug gear she wore with it, the same black metal casing and translucent white moniglass.

  “I wonder what it was like back when…” Her voice trailed off as a something caught her eye on one of the many blinking screens before her. It pulled up, zooming into the middle monitor of her aug so she could get a better look and cursed faintly under her breathe.

  “What?”

  “Pod342.” She muttered as she slide the glasses from her face and headed in the direction of the larger, burly security men meant to help her with unsavory situations. In all honestly, she could have probably handled the situation herself. Most of the time when people learned that they were caught doing the dirty VR style, they felt so embarrassed they fled the scene. Her sister had made her promise she’d bring backup when she heard about some of the more dark things that the convention behind the scenes held.

  “Think man or woman?” Yash asked as he came up beside her. She had just reached the pod in question, her toe tapping the external power button near the bottom of the machine.

  “Woman,” Grant, one of the security, answered.

  “No way.“ Polk shook his head from beside him. “Has to be a dude. No way would a girl get her socks off in a game.”

  Asra raised a brow in his direction. “Why do you say that?”

  “Have you ever had your fold fondled in a-“

  She shot him a warning look, not wanting the continue as the machine whirled. Yash on the other hand crackled with laughter beside her. He was such a child. The pill like pod whistling and twinkling with lights as it let it’s occupant know it was being shut down. Then it’s lid popped back with a shhh of chilled air and swung up to reveal the roly-poly looking fellow inside. His face was the color of red handed guilt, his attention on covering the problem he had below his belt.

  Little known fact. Unlike commercial grade equipment. VR pods acted as sleep simulators, everything that happened was the closest state one could get to a dream while still being conscious. She didn’t know the technicals just that this meant that there were obvious overlaps in some things. Including emotional reactions like that of attraction. Basically if someone popped a boner in the VR, it was safe to say they were feeling it RL also. It was also why they had everyone sign contracts and have doctor permissions to use the pods. Heart attacks were a very real risk of the VR Pods.

  “Afternoon.” Asra forced a smiled. “Why don’t we go somewhere a bit less public and talk about the contract you signed to use our pods.”

  The man did not fight, nor did he look anyone in the eyes the whole time as she went over user agreement and termination of contract with him. Turning especially red at the bits about indecent in-game content like sexual indecency and other things that would break the TOS of their company.

  “Since it’s a first time offense,” Yash said pushing the contract toward him. “We’ll go with a warning and let you enjoy the rest of the festivities. However, I will note this has been added to your profile for our company and the punishment next time will not be so light.”

  Asra’s eyes flickered from the man to Yash. He looked collected, something she always found so odd from having grown up with him. It wasn’t often he looked professional, she had to study it while she could before the usual Yash was back. The one that liked to dish his work onto her and was often found in increasingly odd situations. Just then he was the member of the Corp Family, a proud businessman willing to put people in their place if they stepped over his line. This man hadn’t yet done that but could if he weren’t careful.

  He must have felt her looking, because as the role-poly man was rising from his chair Yash glanced toward her. Then with a smile, he stuck out his tongue to ruin every aura of business that he’d built, and stood to show the man out. Asra sighed.

  “He was so close to being cool,” she grumbled. Shoving the chairs back under the table she pocketed the VR glasses that’d been left on the table and followed them out. As she clicked the door close behind her, the speaker in her ear chimed a few times.

  “Vince Franklin is calling,” the AI of her company gear stated. “Would you like me to record his message?”

  “Answer.” Asra trailed behind the group ahead of her, just enough for they voices to be dull. It was unusual for Vince to call her on a normal day, let alone when she was at work. Her whole family new that she was working the convention the next five days.

  “As mandated by Corporate Contract : Section 532, Clause #222871 I must remind you that company gear is not to be used for personal busi-.”

  “I know,” she cut across the AI though the machine only paused momentarily.

  “… business unless it is stated as an emergency or of equal importance. Do you understand this?”

  “I understand.” Asra eyed the passage that appeared ahead of her. Looking down the hall for anyone close enough who might overhear. They lead off to the offices in one direction where a sturdy door locked behind company issued passkeys and the other back toward the halls hosting the pods.

  “To ensure that you are not abusing your power the first 30 seconds of your call will be recorded and sent into the human relations offices for inspection. For personal privacy it will be viewed by one official and deleted if deemed appropriate use of the company gear.”

  “Fine, will you just answer it please?”

  “Answering Vince Franklin’s call.” The AI chimed a few times before there was a hum of connection between two lines.

  “Asra?” Vince’s voice cracked, causing her gut to twist. “Olivia collapsed.”