He felt light. Not something so exciting as a new lease on life but he did feel light. Duncan could feel a sense of quiet elation as he replayed the moment his post went up in his mind. He took the last corner perfectly with no hitch in his stride. As he entered the more heavily lit gym he found himself wondering if it was sunny outside. To accommodate the massive amount of humanity held within the StarPower sponsored apartment complexes, the vast majority of the population were encased within the structure of the building. His own apartment was at least 200 meters within walls and he’d have to walk that far to get to an outwards facing window. The gym was near to the centre along with the hidden facilities within the level. Artificial light mimicked the outside word, likely some scientist decided this was for assisting circadian rhythms or something. As such, like most occupants, Duncan rarely had occasion to leave the building. He could, he supposed to himself, go and look. Maybe take a walk outside. Most occupants rarely ventured outside. There was little need. All their food and entertainment was within the building. Rarely did people have actual jobs that required travel. It wasn’t unusual that Duncan hadn’t stepped outside in three months or more. He thought to himself, ‘it might not be unusual but it certainly seems unnatural now that I think of it’.

The generally silent gym thrummed with the low, methodical stroking sound of the treadmill. He saw her there and felt a near physical lift in his abdomen. After a mental eye roll at himself, Duncan settled into his stretches and began barbell squats. He tried to focus on his exercise, but his gaze betrayed his minds true intent. He watched her run and admired her form. Not just the aesthetics, but also her economy. No wasted motion, no effort that was unnecessary. She had a perfect stride that gave nothing away from what she was doing. She looked like the professional soldiers that ran in lines and were trained relentlessly. He paused as he racked the barbell and she finished her run. Barely out of breath, she extended her halo band monitor and prepared for a post. He disabled his music and picked up some dumbbells while listening. “Hi everyone!’ again enthusiastic and bright but somehow not the usual plastic. ‘just finished my run. No PB today but keeping at it! I hope you’re all having a great morning and enjoying yourselves.’ He thought he saw her focus in on the top of her self facing monitor screen and realised he was just barely in the shot. In a moment of panic he considered jumping backwards and sideways out of her cams sight. Then realised that would be even more obvious. It seemed like today was a day for self aimed eye rolls. Layla turned and smiled sunnily at him and grabbed her towel and water bottle and started towards him. ‘Duncan, man. Stay cool. You’re gonna be witty and down to earth and totally in the game’ he coached himself silently. And immediately upon her arrival, his mouth betrayed him. ‘Oh hey hi hey there!’ he half shouted, his face immediately and likely obviously reddening. She grinned impishly back, ‘Hey hi hey there yourself.’ Duncan died internally. He dumped the dumbbells a little too hard onto the mat and straightened up. ‘might as well own it dumbass’ he thought. ‘How…are you doing.’ That hitch was noticeable but he felt himself gathering a small bit of confidence. ‘I’m doing good. How about you?’ she replied. Duncan attempted to affect a casual air but in his haste to act casual and listen to her, he’d grabbed the heaviest dumbbells. ‘Nice day.’ He crashed and burned again. She laughed lightly and said, ‘Yeah it is. Weather is great here.’ He relaxed a bit more and smirked back. ‘Rain has made it all a mess though.’ Her impish grin reappeared then she threw her towel around her neck. ‘Listen I got to run, my parents have scheduled a video chat with me. I’d like to learn to do some weights though. Would you meet me tomorrow same time and give me some lessons?’ His heart leapt. ‘Absolutely!’ he replied with significantly too much enthusiasm. Layla appeared not to notice. ‘See you then’ she winked before walking out.

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The rest of Duncan’s workout went by in a mixture of excitement and self recrimination. With a Herculean effort of will, he pushed Layla and their meeting out of his mind and made his way back to his apartment. The many panelled mainscreen on his wall caught his eye for a moment. A mirror filmed scene of Roy and Amelia shopping in a babywear store caught his eye momentarily before he looked back to the server unit and the waiting cube of snot. He ate mechanically, gazing up at the screen and seeing some footage breaking in of the Earthquake aftermath. In bold type print a scrolling tickertape gave different numerical information about deaths, injuries and missing persons. The ash taste came back into his mouth. He finished up and blinked again at the screen, his heart seeming to stop dead. There in the corner where is personal stats showed a flashing green up arrow nestled next to the bright, bold SP17. He remembered to breath. ‘What the…SP17…’ he wondered aloud, ‘How the hell is that possible. Ten levels…’ he trailed off, his voice echoing once more in the room. Using his halo band monitor he changed the screen to show his personal StarPower stats. His video from last night had increased his personal views from 210 in the last week to almost 3000 in the past day. He wondered to himself if a year would have him receiving that many. While his ranking of SP7 nominally informed him that he had 700 or so followers, that didn’t guarantee that he would receive that many views. He rarely broke quadruple digits in a month! Those 700 or so followers were a lifetime of acquaintances, from family to school mates. In a system that rewarded influence and contacts, everyone within it would tap bands to swap contact information. This usually led to superficial friendships that wouldn’t even progress to conversation even when meeting again in person. It just simply benefited everyone to follow each other so that they would be followed in turn. Content driven views generated real income though, not just a guarantee of Universal. In his life, Duncan wouldn’t imagine that anything he posted would generated even a thousand views. ‘I’m in the money!’ he announced to no one, the echo barely chilling him for once.