As the sliding door closes behind me, I find myself in the quiet hallway, without a goal in mind. "Not that I know where anything is, even if I did have a plan," I think, looking at numerous identical doors stretching out in both directions. As soon as the thought crosses my mind, however, my stomach growls in protest. "Alright, scratch that, I guess I do have a plan, I just don't know where I'm going. God, what has it been, like, 12 hours? That jackass priest never let me have any food. Probably because he knew I'd be dead in an hour anyways." The moment it occurs to me, a thought pops into my mind. "I should kill him the next time I see him."

I stand there for a moment, blinking, before shaking my head as though trying to dislodge the thought. "No, I'm not doing that," I tell myself. I don't feel particularly convinced, but I do my best to shelve the thought regardless. As I do, the lights in the hallway start to dim. I watch them lower to night-light levels before it dawns on me what is happening. "It's gotta be a day slash night cycle, to help with people's circadian rhythms and stuff." As the lights settle, I look to my left and my right, before arbitrarily picking a direction to wander down. I start to head back towards the Concourse, but on a whim as I approach a junction, I decide to turn left at it.

As my footsteps quietly echo, a well worn thought passes through my mind. "God, I wish I still had music to listen to." I grin, and start to mutter under my breath in English. "So, you got isekai'd to a video game world," I say, mimicking the tone of a news reporter. "What would you say was the hardest part?" I respond to the faux interviewer in my natural voice, saying, "Oh, it would for sure be the lack of Spotify. Music on demand is so important to me, and their family deal is just so affordable! 12.99 a month for three people? How can you pass up such an incredible deal!" I'm mostly speaking to fill the void, effectively letting a stream of consciousness fall from my mouth. The mock interview dies on my lips as I notice a door to my right with a green light, standing out among the sea of red.

"She said guards or locked doors would keep me out if I'm not supposed to enter," I think, looking at the green light. "It's probably fine." It takes me a few moments more to convince myself, but I eventually take a step towards the door, where I watch the light flash, before the door silently glides open. I enter the room, and look at what is effectively a handful of seats, facing a large window. However, my eyes are glued on the blue, white, brown and green marble some 22 thousand miles away. "Huh," is the only thing the crosses my mind, and my feet autonomously lead me to a seat. "To be fair, it's less of a marble and more of a... exercise ball?" I reach out my arms, as though trying to measure the diameter of the planet in front of me, before dropping them back into my lap.

"What's the name of that thing that happens to some astronauts in space? The one where you feel like all the problems of the planet are small, or something like that? I think that's where I'm at right now." I watch as clouds slowly drift across the surface of the planet, getting a clearer look at the globe than I was ever able to get in the dropship. "It's just... ineffable," I think. Even the endless chatter of my mind is quieted, as every part of me takes a moment to soak in the view. I'm sitting here for what could be 30 seconds, or 30 minutes, before a realization dawns on me. "There's no city lights." My eyes scan the shadowed portion of the earth, but the expected glitter of modern life is nowhere to be found. The scale of war, the loss that humanity has faced is sobering, and yet I can feel a tiny part of me saying to dismiss it.

"It's not my home, not really. Like, it's sad and all, but I'm not staying here. It's just some other place with people and problems that don't really have anything to do with me. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to be a hero," says the voice. It's addicting; this idea that I can put aside the worries of those around me. To mentally place myself above it in some way, and separate myself from the dystopia of the system. "No, that's not right. Right now, I live here, with these people and these problems. This is my home," I think, in a rejection of the philosophy.

"For now, anyways, and possibly for a long time. And even when I leave, a part of it is always going to be with me. I can't just... ignore what's going on around me. There are people here, people who are suffering and... have a lot of suffering ahead of them, honestly. If I can do something, anything to help, I have to. I don't know if I'd be able to live with myself otherwise." My thoughts trail off, but I can feel the ghost of the premise in my mind; a dark specter that tells me I am better, that my life is worth more, that it would be okay to use those around me if it helped me get what I wanted because I'm more "real" in some ephemeral way.

I turn my attention to back to the planet, in an attempt to discard the thought, but I can feel it's tendrils hovering in the darkest corners of my mind, waiting for a more vulnerable moment to reappear. As I stare at the planet, doing my best to ignore what's in my head, a few interesting landmarks start to resolve themselves in front of my eyes. "There's like... circuitry or something on the planet," I think, watching globe slowly spin. "Some sort of arcology or something? The ruins of humanity, of the Orokin have to exist somewhere on the planet. Like, in game we get bits and pieces, and I know it's been some huge amount of time since the Orokin era, but there should still be huge... city ruins left behind. It would make sense that they're somewhere. Maybe they're just not valuable to the Grineer, or something. Or maybe the game devs just didn't want to make a tileset. Or the Orokin era was even longer ago than I realized and it's all been worn away by the relentless march of time. Or or or. Shit, I don't know, it could be a million things really."

I take a few more minutes to enjoy the scene, before standing and stretching. "I'm in space," I say out loud, just to really drive the thought home. The words send a shiver of excitement down my spine. "So much has happened today that I never really stopped and just thought about it. There's only like a meter of metallic alloy between me and the vacuum of space. Real, actual space. Like NASA type shit. That's just so insane," I think with a smile on my face. "And yet..." Part of me doesn't want to put it into words, the unspoken feeling that had been tainting every moment. As though speaking it out loud, or forming it into a thought would somehow actualize it. "...and yet, I'm a prisoner. Me and Ko-lee. I mean, I can go anywhere I want, do anything I want to do in the relay. I'm just not allowed to leave. A gilded cage for real."

"Plus," I think, "I can only imagine that mine and Ko-lee's continued existence is predicated on how useful the Lotus finds me. I'm basically getting drafted here, and I doubt I can file for exemption." My smile drops off my face, replaced by a frown as the mood is soured. I turn away from the window and leave the observation deck, finding myself back in the hallway. I continue on my original path, still not particularly sure where I'm going. Luckily, after only a couple more minutes of walking, I notice a sign carved into one of the walls denoting the direction a mess hall, and so I orient myself towards it. It only takes a few minutes more before I find myself in what looks not that far off from a school cafeteria. There are a number of people there - just under half of the seats being filled - and nearly all are in the suits of the Tenno, all still with the upper portion of their mask on.

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"That can not be comfortable, eating while wearing one of those," I think, remembering the few times I had tried to snack while wearing my VR headset. I make my way over to the counter to get some food, and the server looks at me, the mask obscuring their expression. "Are you visiting?" he asks, and I can't help but snort. "No, I'm going to be hanging around for a while, I think. According to the Lotus probably, I've been 'recruited' to work with the Tenno," I say, making sure to give air quotes as I say the word recruited. There's a moment of silence, and I can feel the tips of my ears start to heat up. "Oh woops, maybe the Tenno guy serving me food is not the right person to be complaining about this to," I think. Eventually, he places his hands on the counter in front of him. "The Lotus? Or the warframe?" he asks, and I give a mental sigh of relief.

"I don't know, to be entirely honest," I say, shrugging. "Is there supposed to be a way to tell?" The server gives a shrug of his shoulders. "For you? You'd just have to go by the tone of their voice. Maybe their words. The Lotus is more serious, in most cases," he says. "Why for me?" I ask. "Well, you don't have a suit yet," he says, tapping the side of his headset, before passing his hand over to my side of the counter, touching a device of some sort. It beeps briefly, before flashing green, and he cuts me off before I can ask. "I'm spotting you," he says, and I feel my eyebrows threaten to raise into the stratosphere. "Uhm, thank you," I say, "but can I ask why?" He gives me a shrug. "I'm guessing you just got here?" he asks, and I give him a quick nod. "I won't ask what happened to you. But you're in familiar company," he says, giving me a truly indecipherable look.

"Well, thank you again," I say, as the growl of my stomach demands attention. He just gives me a nod, already scooping up a meal. After only a minute or so, he hands me a tray with a number of things on it, and I give a flash of the pearly whites before finding my way to an open table. As I plonk down in the seat, I look over my meal with an appraising glance. "Hmm, healthy," I think, taking in the small portions of some rice like grain, fruit, and fish, along with a generous serving of veggies. I grab the provided chopsticks from the plate, and raise a bite to my mouth, not entirely sure what to expect. The fish is familiar, almost definitely having been sourced from the waters around Cetus. The grain is good, if unfamiliar, and the veggies are surprisingly tasty, if not equally mysterious.

"You could put a gun to my head and I would have no idea how to explain this taste to you," I think, taking another bite of the vegetable. "Like if a potato and an asparagus had a baby, but it looked like off-brand brussel sprouts? Food do be weird." I take another bite, trying to determine how much I really liked it. "To be fair, I think anything would hit when I'm this hungry," I think to myself, doing my best to resist shoveling the food into my mouth. "And fruit is never gonna taste bad. Sugar is sugar is sugar." As I do my best to pace myself, I watch people, mostly Tenno, drift in and out of the mess hall. Nearly every single person I see is wearing one of the headsets, even while eating, and only a handful of people don't seem to be wearing one of the Tenno aligned suits.

I see a pair that is recognizably Ostron, as well as a few with odd outfits that I recognized from the market. "For as much time as I've been here," I think, "I really have no idea what cultures or groups there are in the system. I mean, beyond the Grineer and Corpus, and those over in Fortuna, the game doesn't really have anything else. There's the syndicates; Red Veil and Cephalon Suda and stuff, but like... Baro Ki'teer makes a comment during the Inaros quest about having lived as part of a Mars colony. I would assume people like that are still kicking around. What do they look like, what's their vibe?"

I manage to spot a Corpus or two as I people watch, but by the time I finish off the rest of my food, I never see a single Grineer. "I guess that makes sense. Like, to be fair, the subset of Grineer that aren't crazy xenophobic are Steel Meridian, and Kahl once he makes his little camp. And... that's pretty much it," I think. "You know what's odd though? Loki said the syndicate's were floating around, but not a single one popped up in here. What are the odds of that?" I double check, on the off chance I mixed up one of the Tenno for one of the other syndicates, but I don't notice anyone wearing the somewhat similar outfits. "I'm gonna have to ask someone about that, honestly. After I do a quick scan of the Concourse."

I try to mentally trace the path we had taken from the Concourse to our apartment, but the lack of landmarks makes it hard to be sure of the exact route. "I mean, it was a mostly straight line. I'm pretty sure I'd be able to find my way back," I think, before giggling at the thought. "Yea right. This place is huge. I'm 100 percent going to end up lost." I file the plan away under the "when I'm bored and have nothing better to do" folder in my mind, before getting up from the table and leaving the cafeteria. As I pop back out into the hallway, I head off in the direction I'm 80% confident that I had originally come from. After a few minutes of walking, I find the sign, and after a few minutes more, I spot the junction.

I turn to the right, and it only takes a couple minutes after that to find what I am confident is the door to the apartment. "To be fair, it's the only one glowing green," I think sarcastically, as I approach the sliding door. As it glides open, it reveals a darkened space, and the dim levels of light from the hallway only stretch a few feet into the room. My eyes take a moment to adjust, and eventually I'm able to see the shape of Ko-lee on the bed. "She's still here," I think, looking at her gently breathing form. I hadn't truly expected her to find a separate room to sleep in, but a small, anxious part of me feared the idea of coming home to an empty room.

I quickly get ready for bed, before carefully climbing under the covers, doing my best to not wake her as I do. As my weight presses down onto the mattress, she shifts around, and I freeze momentarily, until finally, she settles once more. I fully get under the sheets, and take a moment to breathe, focusing on relaxing each one of my limbs in turn. "Sorry Heya, but this bed is 1000 times more comfortable than the ones over at Goldstone. Honestly, memory foam type beds are just above and beyond spring mattresses any day of the week," I think, as I adjust my position. "I hadn't realized how much I missed my Purple until just now. Ah, well, this is close enough."

I turn to my side, and start mentally connecting the freckles on Ko-lee's exposed back. "I need to talk to Ko-lee, tell her about my plan to get home. I don't know how close I am, really. It could be months, or years before anything really pans out. But I don't want to wait until the last moment," I think. "Besides, I... think I want to sell her on the idea of coming home with me. There's no life to be built here, not really. There's no living happily ever after in a solar system that is constantly embroiled in war. Just... sparks of light in endless shadow." I feel the exhaustion of the day start to creep up on me, and I close my eyes.

"I'm not sure I could leave without her, either. I don't know what I'd do if she said she wanted to stay." I sigh, my forehead pressing against her the skin of her back. "This is such a stupid fucking problem. It was the whole reason I didn't want to get romantically involved with anyone in the first place. And of course I literally fall for the first person I lay eyes on. Willpower the strength of tissue paper, honestly." My arm snakes under the covers, and wraps tight around her waist, as I pull her against my body. "No, it's not that, not really. I was doomed from the start; pretty girl who could literally kill me, who laughs at my dumb jokes and has freckles? There was no shot." The thought makes me grin, and it's only a few minutes more before the sandman comes to claim me.