Max shuffled in with a groan, stretching out after the long Pod ride, "Hey guys. Anything interesting happen?"

Jolana waved hello, as Alex walked past to close the door, "Ehh, not much. We have gotten thinking about the sims, though..."

Max raised an eyebrow curiously, as Jolana wandered in the direction of the study today, "Oh really? Anythign I should know about?"

Alex nodded as they brought up the rear, "See, we have been having a lot of fun with the sims, right? But, we only come up with so many ideas." Max nodded, following along with a smile, "Sooo, we think it is time to actually look into mass producing this stuff. At least, for enthusiasts."

"Ohoh? Fix the part where you need a supercomputer?"

"... Not yet. Like I said, enthusiasts." Alex giggled as they entered the study, making for one of the armchairs before Jolana pulled them to a wider couch. Blushing, they continued, "Ahem... Anyway, we figured you would be the best person to help."

Max smirked at the squirming Alex, and smug Jolana as she sat down comfortably, "I would be very interested, considering... But, how much help will I be, exactly?"

Alex and Jolana glanced at each other, and shrugged, "Really? You have a good enough start with the molecular-level sims that you wouldn't need to learn much, and you have more reason to develop it further than we do. Only reason the sims grew as complex as they did was out of boredom."

"... Ow, my pride." Laughing, Max nodded, "Okay, that sounds good. How much will I get to see of your precious system?"

"Give it some time... And all of it." Alex smiled, hiding their nerves, "From the blueprints of our hardware, to the very core of our operating system."

"That's... rather surprising, actually. I thoguth Sam was pretty secretive?"

"Oh, the doctor certainly is. We just have permission in this case, due to.... Mutual benifit." Jolana grinned as she nudged Alex, "We have plans to move on to other projects, so seeing the VR take off would be awesome... And, spreading the doctor's unique designs would benifit computers as a whoe in a big way."

"Almost too good to be true. Come on, I know there has to be a but~"

Alex nodded, "Well, yeah. You have to keep things under wraps until we say you can talk about them... And then, be our loudest spokesperson ever, singing our praise! And yours, of course."

Max laughed again, chuckling deeply as he looked at the two, "You know, I still feel I'm missing something... But, that sim of yours has me hooked. I can't say no."

Alex nodded, offering a hand to Max, "We can start right away, actually. You might not get to see our software for a bit, but making the sim chairs more affordable would be a great first step."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Shaking the offered hand, Max nodded with a calmer smile, "I'll see what I can do. The first priority is comfort of the user, yeah?"

"Second. It needs to work, first." Grinning, Alex got up, and led the way to the vr room so they could begin.

Sitting around a sketch of the Sim chair schematics, piles of notes now scattered around the floor, the three of them got up in a chorus of grunts and whimpers.

"Next time... We should just do this in the sim itself." Jolana stretched to either side, cramped up from sitting on the floor for hours.

"Yeah, probably." As Max leant down to collect the papers, Alex held out a hand, "Nonono, I'll have those collected later. I'll just send you the scanned copies." Nodding gratefully, Max straightened back up, wincing as he regretted having bent over in the first place.

"Oof... Yeah, no more floor planning. Anyway, like I said, I think I have the main schematic of these things down. Interesting waveform you use to pick up thought patterns, by the way."

Alex nodded with a smile, "Thank you. We stumbled across it, while testing... Various equipment." Alex gently made a note to be more careful, Max needed to be kept in the dark about the AHOR project for now... "Anything proving a problem?"

"Only this mystery compartment you keep insisting on. Highly cooled, but compact, and eeds high band transmissions to the central source... Guess you want to intergrate one of your secret processors directly in the chair?"

"Yup. Will make the experience so much smoother. We just haven't got the design... Small enough yet. Larger sims will still need a server, though."

Nodding, Max made his way out with a yawn, "I'll keep that in mind, might look into renovating my shop. Now, I have a pod to go nap in... Youo two stay out of trouble~"

"Bit hard around here!" Jolana grinned cheekily as she waved goodbye, watching Max leave with a releived sigh, "... I can't beleive that worked."

"Hey, what did I tell you... Slowly lead him to the truth." Alex turned around, hugging her with a smile, "Besides, I really do need help with the sim."

Jolana rolled her eyes as she leaned into Alex's chest, "No, you want the help. The sims are crazy enough as is." Smile softening as she glanced up, Jolana hugged tighter, "Just, be careful, okay?"

"Of course... Can't leave anyone in this mansion unsupervised, after all." Giggling, Alex sighed in relief as well... Time to do another balancing act, and they made it off the starting post, at least.