A steady rhythm echoed through the room: Bang. Bang. Bang. Ash threw a tennis ball against the wall, the sound punctuating the silence as it had done countless times when boredom had consumed him. But today was different. Today, the fingers of his other hand drummed an uneven rhythm against his desk chair. His eyes were distant, focused on something not in the room. It wasn't nerves, no... it was anticipation, a palpable waiting that was now his whole world.
"Ash," a gentle, feminine voice rang out from the comfort of his bed. "You do realize that all this won't make it come any quicker, right?" Shifting her position, she swung her legs off the side of the bed. She looked at Ash, her deep brown eyes flickering with a mix of amusement and mild exasperation beneath arched eyebrows. Ash stopped the rhythmic bouncing of the ball, ceased his tapping, and sighed deeply. It wasn't the sort of sigh someone lets out when they're frustrated or weary, no. It was a sigh heavy with pent-up anticipation and a hint of impatience.
“It’s been months that we’ve been waiting for this Rose, months!” He sat forward and pushed himself up off his desk chair to start the familiar pace around his room he had been doing since he woke this morning. Woke was also a strong word, to wake you had to have been asleep and he had barely slept with the excitement of what today brought. “Yours is updated, yes?” He asked again, for the fifth time in just the last hour.
“Yes, Ash, for the sixtieth time, it’s updated” Rose smiled faintly, “Would you please just calm down otherwise the system will throw you out before you even get the chance to get in there!”
With a squint and another sigh, Ash resigned himself back to his desk chair, his gaze locked onto the headset before him. Just a mere two months ago, the little-known gaming company 'The Chaos Council' had sent shockwaves through the world with the announcement of Sensync Dive, the upcoming virtual reality system promising to redefine the very concept of gaming. All they divulged about Sensync Dive was its unique capability - it was to be the first deep-dive virtual reality system, enabling players to immerse themselves fully within any video game. Ash's palpable excitement could hardly be concealed; he had combed every corner of the internet, engaging with fellow gaming enthusiasts across the globe, hunting for more information about this enigmatic system. Yet, all he found was a countdown clock on The Chaos Council's website, blinking back at him ominously. Ten minutes to go.
Ash’s soon-to-be old VR headset sat on his desk; battery fully charged as he’d made sure it had been plugged in 24-7 for the past week for this moment. In ten minutes, he’d be putting that headset on and finding out just what Sensync Dive was and what they were doing with it!
“Any idea’s what you think it might be like?” Ash ran a hand through his unruly chestnut curls, strands sticking up at odd angles from his extended use of the headset. He looked at Rose expectedly and waited for a response.
"Nope," Rose responded, her slender shoulders moving upward in a nonchalant shrug. A creeping smile spread across her face, transforming her features. "But I have a feeling it's going to be remarkable." Her whole face lit up with excitement and she was up on her feet in an instant, her long dark ginger hair dancing with her in its ponytail. "Think about it, Ash, no one knows a thing about this. There have been no press briefings, no leaks. Everyone's going to discover it at the same time! That's unprecedented!" She plopped back down on the bed, letting out a contented sigh. Yet, her smile remained intact, the glow in her deep brown eyes undiminished. After taking a moment to compose herself, she chided, "And could you just try to be patient? Every time something new comes along, you rev up like a kid in a sweet shop and then, inevitably, I get roped in!"
"Well, I want someone to share in my excitement and if you aren’t I’ll make you” Ash cheekily stuck his tongue out at his best friend, throwing the ball gently towards her. She caught it, of course, though not without a few comical fumbles. "Seriously Ash, you can be such an arsehole," she retorted, rolling her eyes and tossing the ball back at him. Her throw was far from gentle, but Ash took it in his stride, deftly snagging it from the air with a single hand.
"Come on, we’ve got less than 5 minutes left now, let’s get ourselves in” Ash gave a broad grin to Rose, his excitement contagious. A matching wide smile spread across Rose's face as she waved her arms around, her body full of eager anticipation. She collected her VR headset from the end of the bed, declaring, "Main Arena. I'll meet you at our usual spot!" She then proceeded to slip the headset over her dark ginger hair, tucking in her ponytail. Watching her eyes disappear behind the screen, Ash couldn't help but smile to himself, feeling a rush of appreciation for his friend. She was a couple of years younger than him at 19 and he was 21 but they had so much in common, and he was grateful they'd met. How they met though wasn’t orthodox, in fact, Rose could have been forgiven for thinking Ash was some kind of weirdo.
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Next door was empty for many years and Ash had done some work for the estate agents, who were selling the property, keeping it in good shape for them for the time being. He was paid a little money to go and keep the garden straight and make sure the house was well looked after for any viewings. It was last summer that he met Rose and what an introduction it was for her. It was a long hot summer with the occasional day of rain, this had the annoying habit of making the weeds shoot up much faster in the garden than normal, which meant more work for Ash.
One particular day, he had done some gardening and was sweating buckets in the blistering heat. After finishing uprooting a particularly stubborn set of brambles, he decided to go home and take a shower. At least he would have liked to. His mum must have left the house without him realising as the door was now locked. Standing on the front porch he cursed his luck, he was tired and dripping with sweat and just wanted to feel cool. He thought briefly about sitting in the shade of the house on the front porch and wait for his mum to return, but this was quickly ruled out as he was uncomfortably sticky, so of course he decided to do what anyone would have done. He had the keys to the empty house next door, he’d use that shower and just clean up after himself, it was only a rinse and he’d sort himself out properly that evening. He didn’t have a towel but that was ok, it was that hot he would just drip dry in the bathroom with the light breeze through the bathroom window helping the drying process. The plan was flawless!
Although Rose wouldn’t think that plan was flawless when she came to view the house with her father and found a naked man in the bathroom, legs akimbo trying to get himself dry. The look of utter shock on Rose’s face was still something that made him laugh to this day, along with make himself a shade of crimson too. When her brain had caught up with her body she screamed and slammed the door shut, Ash quickly got himself into his clothes at that point. Rose’s father found it hilarious and apparently it was “just her luck” to find a naked man in her bathroom whatever that meant. For a long time though Rose would avoid Ash whenever he or she found themselves outside at the same time, many times scurrying away with her head down making all manner of different excuses. His favourite was when it had just started raining and she said she had to go and put the washing out for her dad.
Ash’s bedroom backed on to their house where Rose’s bedroom was, typical girl next door style but on this street, it wasn’t uncommon for houses to mirror those next to each other. It was a few months later when Ash was playing on his favourite MMO, Dragon Dungeoneer, that he got very frustrated at the boss he was facing and started shouting obscenities at the top of his lungs. Slamming down his headset and shouting “Fucking Dark Dragon of Murdoch! I can’t get past this fucker!” Along with a lot more curse words and animated language. He’d meticulously planned his runs to strike when the dragon was rearing up, he would slide under the dragon and start slashing away and dive out before he took damage from the resulting attack. But he never seemed to able to do enough damage and always died in the resulting area of effect spell the dragon would cast at random intervals.
“Hey!” He heard from outside his window. He stopped shouting. Who was calling him from outside his window? His mum was out, it couldn’t have been her, plus the gap between the houses wasn’t that big for just anyone to be out in his garden. He leaned back on his chair so he could see out and there she was, long dark ginger hair left to hang down as she leaned out. “Hi?” Ash said, a bit flustered, “Sorry if I was too loud, I got a bit too…”
“Every third attack he rears up” He was cut off by Rose. “That’s not the time when he is weakest, a mistake everyone makes. A little-known trick is to wait until after the fifth attack when he starts flapping his wings and go for those, he takes more damage there” She smiled as Ash’s face dropped,
“You know Dragon Dungeoneer?” His eyebrows as high as his hairline at this point.
“Yes, girls play too you know”.
And it was this encounter that had the two of them hanging out of the window and exchanging tips with each other ever since. Though, they’d stepped things up a notch two months back when Ash’s mum joined in hanging out of windows and peered out of the downstairs window to say, “Why doesn’t she just come over, I’m not sure the whole street wants to know about it, Ash” She directed at him, “Hi Rose! How’s school?” She smiled brightly towards Rose.
Here they were now, VR’s sliding on to heads and meeting at their usual spot in the main arena. This is going to be something else, Ash said to himself. He had no idea how much his life was about to change.