“Take your shoes off at the door please!” Stella instructed as she tapped her WristComp against the door labeled 1048. The gate opened to reveal a different apartment face beyond the security filter that gave the Hollow City its cavernous look. With two stories and a small yard in front that had a little table and chairs set up, it was quite cute. Stella pointed to the left, where a set of stairs went up to the second-floor balcony, and said, “Those stairs go right up to the bedrooms, so leave your bags out here. Once you choose a room, we’ll take them up that way. Come on.”

“It’s huge,” Dassah noted as she took her shoes off in the entry.

“Valkyrians place a high importance on two things when it comes to housing: privacy, and community,” Stella explained, padding through the main hall on the balls of her feet. Dassah started to count the doors they passed. “Everyone has their own spaces — the bedrooms, bathrooms, and personal rooms are upstairs, plus an office for each person downstairs. Then there are the communal spaces: the loft upstairs, and everything else downstairs.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Well, you have to consider that these apartments are mass-produced modules designed to work for all species. What might work for you or I won’t work for a garule, a jikak, or an earar. The smaller races make out pretty well in that regard — though I must admit, seeing a tivarys roll around in a bed meant for a garule is hilarious.”

Dassah followed Stella through the first narrow hall which opened to a large open space with a loft overlooking a kitchen, dining, and living room. Large windows looked into the deep plum-colored ocean and covered the whole wall of both floors. Dassah wondered how many sea creatures might be brave enough to approach such a structure.

Stella pulled her up to the second floor saying, “I’ve already chosen the middle room, which leaves the one on the right, which is closer to the outside staircase, or the left, which is closer to the inside staircase. They are identical, so.”

“Uh...”

“So which is it?” Stella grinned mischievously. “Are you the type to sneak out at night, or to snitch midnight snacks?”

Snorting, Dassah pointed at the door they were in front of. “I’ll just take this one.”

“Ah, the escaping type, are you? Take a look and let’s go get your stuff!”

Stella opened the door for her and let her look around before they headed to the far door. The layout of the rooms was a little strange, but it was functional. As Stella had told her, there was a long narrow bedroom with a decent-sized closet, a bathroom, and a small empty room with a door to the outside porch.

As they started putting Dassah’s things away, she asked, “Do you know who our third roommate is?”

“Her name is Bahena Sere.”

“And?”

“And she should be here any minute now, is my guess. What’s this?” Stella asked, holding up one of Dassah’s stuffed animals.

“A penguin. Just put it on the bed, I’ll find a home for it later.”

”Oh! And this? Is it food?”

“Spices.”

“When are you cooking for me?”

Dassah looked at the clear box filled to the brim with colorful bags of spices and took it from Stella’s hands. “I’ve never cooked with valkyrian ingredients before. I’m not sure what would go well with what, to be honest.”

“There is an Earth biodome,” Stella said, still going through Dassah’s suitcase. “Getting fancy things is always questionable, but you should be able to get basic ingredients. Biodome goods cost luxury credits though.”

“And here I thought keeping track of work and school would be the most complicated thing. Is there anything in the kitchen yet?”

“Not yet. Figured we would eat out or order in once we all met each other. I did scope out a mart about ten minutes to the left of us, though, so food is close. Before that, though,” Stella said with a grin that could only mean trouble. “There’s one more thing I want to show you.”

Stella took Dassah’s hand and pulled her back downstairs. When she stopped in front of the last door, she posed for effect.

“What’s in here?” Dassah asked as she knew Stella wanted her to.

“What’s in here?” Stella repeated with a wide smile. “Only the answer to everything you ever wanted.”

Dassah stared at the door behind her. “Is that...?” she said breathlessly.

Stella pushed the door open. “Welcome, Dassah Graydon, to the TheirWorld Equipment Room.”

The room probably took up half the lower floor of the apartment and contained three person-sized pods. Each was hooked up to a complicated-looking set of what looked like medical equipment.

“...Have you tried it yet?” Dassah asked, going up to the first pod.

“Not yet,” Stella said. “Figured I’d wait till after everyone arrived. It’d be kind of odd if our roommate came in to find the both of us plugged in without even saying ‘Hi,’ and I knew you’d want to jump right in.”

Dassah looked up quickly. “Really?” she asked. “Can I?”

“What’s stopping you?” Stella asked, amused. She handed Dassah a box she’d pulled out of a cabinet by the door. The label read "THEIRWORLD - Setup — Size M-M." Dassah took it with reverence. “You’re in room 3, so Pod 3 is all yours.”

Nearly running over to the pod, Dassah ran her hand over the sleek, plastic-y material of the lid. She found the button to open it and pressed it lightly.

The pods themselves were just beds with extra status-monitoring equipment that would be used to record data from the beta players. It was cushy and pristine inside and smelled like a new car. The box in Dassah’s hands, however — that was the real deal. She put it down on the mattress in the pod and opened it.

The first thing in the box was the instruction manual, which Dassah took a moment to appreciate the cover off before tossing it away. Carefully, she lifted the cover off the equipment case.

She ran her hand over each of the pieces of game equipment. There were two bracelets with finger attachments, two ankle bracelets with toe attachments, a collar, a mouth guard, and a circlet with an attached eye shield. They were all shining silver and sized for a human.

Gently, she lifted the circlet from the box and placed it on her head.

It was finally time.

In the doorway, Stella grinned like the Cheshire cat. “Does it make you that happy?”

“Yes,” Dassah answered. “Yes, it does.”

“Then start it up.”

“I think I will.”

Dassah buckled herself in. She put on the leg bands and the bracelets, before climbing into the pod. On her left wrist was a status monitor glowing with a dim green light as it took note of her physical status and brain patterns. The machine asked for her DNA sample, which she supplied with the provided cotton swab. After the system accepted it, she hooked on the finger attachments and put in her mouth guard.

She was ready.

Laying down, she pulled down the visor and initiated the start-up.

The system came alive, running its first startup checks. Various warnings about safety and prompts to test languages, brightness, text styles, sounds, and dozens of other things ran past in a blur. Because of the game’s high level of realism and ability to affect people’s brains, there were many things that one had to be aware of — and a lot of things that Varier Co. didn't want to be legally responsible for. Eventually, though, the word “ENTER” appeared on the visor screen, along with instructions to close her eyes and relax.