Tom made his way inside with a smile, waving hello to Alex who was waiting patiently at the door, "Good morning. Am I the first to arrive?"

Alex nodded, turning to lead the way, "Morning, Tom. Maximus will be arriving later, he had a project to finish this morning."

"Ahh, I see. I hope his workshop is doing well. I assume nothing was unusual the last time he visited?"

"Not at all, the visit was the same as always. Test out some new ideas in the sim, chat about logical structures, some idle gossip about games and the like."

"Heheh, sounds like you get along rather well, then." Chuckling as he made his way to his usual chair, Tom glanced around, "Should I dive on in, or wait?"

"Up to you, feel free to start if you wish. He shouldn't be too long, but getting started can't hurt." Coughing, Alex fidgeted slightly, "Oh, and... One little thing before you get comfortable."

"Hmm? What is that?"

"... Max does not know that the Mars sim was requested for you. Could you pretend you heard of our project through Greg, and wanted to give it a try?"

Tom hummed quietly, "Not that far a stretch of the truth, I suppose... As long as I don't have to keep up the act long, okay?"

Laughing softly, Alex nodded as they went back to the door, "That's fair. More than fair, even. I'll go and wait in the foyer, but I can monitor the sim at the same time... Just not too closely."

"Cheater." Smirking as he settled into the chair, Tom pulled the helmet down to start calibration. Alex chuckled to themself as they continued walking, dulling down the AHOR's feedback until they spot Max.

Staring off blankly across the hallway as they focused on setting Tom up in a custom sim, Alex blinked as Jolana wandered up to their side, "You seem distracted there~"

"That tends to heppen when I replicate a small world." Giggling, they turned to her with a smile, "Will you be joining us today?"

Shaking her head, Jolana glanced at the front door, "Nah, I think things will be complicated enough for you to juggle. Aren't Ren and Sam joining you, though?"

"Just the doctor. Ren is holed up in his room at the moment." Smirking, Alex hugged Jolana softly, "And I guess a pleasant distraction is still a bad idea, today."

"Heeey now... You need to stop getting better at flirting. I can see you becoming quite the heartbreaker~"

Blushing as they turned their head to the side, Alex smiled, "I'll try to hold back, then. Concentrate my flirting on one spot."

Rolling her eyes with a grin and a faint blush, Jolana peeled away from Alex with a sigh, "I can see the resemblance between you and Sam, definitely... Well, I should leave you to it. Can you set up one of the displays in my room to an observer though, so I can keep an eye on things?"

Alex blinked, "Done. Have fun, with whatever it is you will be doing~" Waving as Jolana headed upstairs, Alex turned back to the front entrance, just in time to spot a mag-pod slowly trundling along in the distance. "Must be Max." Walking calmly to the door, Alex waited just inside.

Sure enough, Max was soon climbing out of the pod, grinning broadly as he waved hello. Trotting up to the front door, he looked around, "All ready to go for the day, are we?"

"We are indeed! Want to grab somethign to eat first, or shall we dive right in?"

"Nah, I ate in the pod on the way over. Figured I would make good use of the long trip."

Gigglign as they headed towards the vr room, Alex nodded, "That is a pretty good idea, yeah... Unless you eat something messy." They both chuckled quietly at that, "Anyway... Today, we will be having a slightly different lineup."

"Oh? Anythign new and exciting?"

"The opposite, actually. Just thought I would give you a heads up." Alex smiled softly as Max peered at them sideways, curious. glancing up at the room ahead, Alex quickly warned Tom that were disconnecting... They had to 'load in' after Max, after all.

Shortly after, Max was reclining comfortably in his chair, finishing his calibrations as Alex reconnected consiously to the sim, and switching the AHOR to standby. Hummign cherfully as their perspective shimmered over to the sim, Alex brought up their control panels, and started setting up the room connections.

Floating on through to the main sim as Max finished getting ready, Alex waved to Tom and Dr Elune as they sat on either side of the glass table, "Back again. Max will be through shortly."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Tom nodded, glancing around, "I have to say it again though, Alex... You did a great job on this one. I mean, damn... I can barely tell I'm using the headset."

Laughing softly, Alex sat down at the table opposite the doctor, "I might be slightly obsessive about that... Back on the station, I had a lot of spare time, and not much to do with it but nap."

"Hah, I guess so. Do you still nap, as you put it?"

"Yeah, but due to actually needing the rest now... Not due to boredom." Glancing over at where they came in, Alex watched as Max appeared in the doorway, coming in from his lobby room.

Looking down idly, Max's eyes bulged as he froze, "Uh, Alex... Where are we?"

"In a replica of my space platform, actually. The real thing is much more terrifying, knowing that you are standing on reinforced glass." Standing up with a grin, Tom held out a hand, "Nice to see you again, Maximus."

Striding forward to shake the offered hand, Max laughed, "It's good to see you too, Tom! Guess Alex couldn't resist calling you over, after knowing of someone else who would appreciate all this."

Tom grinned as he sat back down, "I have been coming here for a while, actually. I only recently learnt of your little joint project, though... That Mars sim takes me back." Alex smiled, thinking that Tom had nicely explained their familiarity.

"Really now? You have had a shot at it already then?"

"Oh, a few times. I coudl probably beat you at the survival mode too, I reckon."

Grinnig with a low chuckle, Max sat down at the table, "Yeah, probably. Good to see you so..."

"Fit?" Laughing as he looked down at his legs, Tom noded, "One of the perks of the sims. I usually have Alex make me a few years younger in the Mars sim, to boot."

"Makes sense." Blinking as he looked around the sweepping shooting gallery that the crew had visited months past, Max whistled, "Back to this, though... You say this is an actual room on your platform?"

"Yup. Perfectly replicated too, by this majestic system here." Grinning as he looked down through the glass, Tom admired the view of the stars, "Ahh, if only I could have this setup at home..."

"I know what you mean. I get vr-related requests at my workshop all the time, but I can't hold a candle to this seemless interface." Blinking as he looked to Dr Elune, who had sat quietly with a grin, Max asked, "Hey, Sam... How is it that this is so good at picking up commands?"

"Hey, don't look at me... The sims are Alex's creation. I'm just here to chaperone~" Grinning as they turned to Alex, the doctor waved to have them explain.

Blushing, Alex fidgeted under the spotlight, thinking over their response first, "Well, uh... The receptors in your helmets are actually really sensetive, and can finely pick up any brain activity. After the calibration, you are continiously monitored, and the system gets a good idea as to what you are thinking."

"Oh? And how detailed is that reading?" Tom leant forwards curiously, glancing at the doctor as he did.

"... Very, if set to be that good. For people's privacy, it only reads areas related to emotion and and motor function, to get an idea as to how you are acting, that sort of thing. Even then, it doesn't go too deep, and saves none of the raw data."

Catching their drift, Tom nodded, mostly satisfied with that answer, "Hmm, it would be interesting to see a live feed of my own scan, one of these days... Maybe I will learn more about myself!"

Alex nodded with a smile, "Sure, any time you want. It shouldn't be too hard to make a readout for that."

Max chuckled as he looked at Tom, "I doubt there is much more for you to learn... You are a pretty smart guy, as I remember."

"Hah, there is always an opportunity to learn a little extra. Anyway..." Glancing at Alex with a smirk, Tom jerked a thumb towards the door, "Enough with the meet 'n' greet... I kinda want to put your skills on Mars to the test, now."

Cracking his knuckles, Max eased out of his chair, "Oh, you're on. This should be an interesting little game."

Sighgin as they nodded and commanded the Mars sim to initialise in a seperate area, Alex got up with a giggle, "You joining in, Doctor?"

"... Sure, why not." Stretching as they got up, Dr Elune grinned, "I should tryu out this Mars sim myself, after all... See what it is like."

And so, once the sim had finished loading, they all strode through the door... Alex grinning as they thoguht up ways to spin the challenge around the small group.