Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 06
The nice thing about working on the file Bobby sent Trevor was that it gave him a reason to end his workday, step out of the precinct's lobby and files, and work within his own lobby. The bad thing about it was that it was an unusual behavior that...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 05
Bobby reached up and grabbed the store's facade, bringing it down to eye level. He unraveled it, studying the image's components, he brought down the hue a few percents, raised the saturation and set it back up to look at it from the distance of people...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 04
Omar Grindgear stood in the market square closest to the eastern gate of Tofen. He wasn't a fan of the city, too much elitism, too many guards protecting the players controlling the city, but Tofen was the closest to the dungeon he wanted to propose....
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 03
Trevor grabbed a bunch of transmissions, widened them until he could see the shape of the data flow, looked for the pattern he was searching for, didn't see it, let the bundle go, and grabbed another one, repeating the process. He was...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 02
Omar stepped out of the game lobby and Trevor dismissed his personal one, with barely a glance at the recreation of a nineteenth-century office to jump out of his chair and run across the room. "Dad wants--" Tucker began. "Later." He entered...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 01
Omar Grindgear looked out on the landscape of rocks and crystal as the transport gem crumbled in his palm. He brushed his hands; the metal scraping together. He smiled, gears whirling as his lips moved. This would be a great game. He saw movement...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 Epilogue
He opened his eyes and immediately close them. He'd never expected light to be this bright, this painful. Sound exploded around him, and he retreated away into the silence of the net. \* \* \* \* \* "Uncle?" the voice was tolerable. ...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 26
Bobby looked around, trying to understand what was going on. He stood in the middle of his lobby; in the luxurious office he'd designed, with the sounds of a city coming from the window. The delicate texture of the old varnished wood desk. The...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 25
Taro staggered back as the mass of players flooded in. He figured they were players, most of them were syleant, no ice people at all. He told himself this was just a raid. He'd taken part in plenty of raids before. This was no different. Except...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 24
The inside of the keep was surprisingly quiet, Omar thought. He could hear the battle outside, but other than the occasional group of NPC acolytes that attacked them when they encountered them, it looked and felt like any of a number of keeps he'd...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 23
"How do I let him talk me into these stupid things?" Omar grumbled to himself as he trudged through the snow. \* \* \* \* \* "It's simple," Tuck said, barely containing his excitement. "You, Trev--" "Omar." "You go get us the...
Virtual Friendship, Draft 1 CH 22
"Where is this going to drop us?" the monkey asked, looking at the forming portal. "Anywhere Taro sets it to," Marc replied, watching it too. He was always impressed with how different each class' travel portal differed. This was as forming from...