Author's Note:
This is my first story, so apologies in advance if it feels rough around the edges. Feedback is welcome. Constructive feedback preferably. In any case, let me know if you enjoyed it and would like to see more, if you hated it and would like to see less, any changes you'd recommend, or any other comments about my writing. Thanks!
All characters are over 18.
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A loud knocking jolted Rebecca awake. Rolling to her side, she grabbed her phone and glanced groggily at the time.
6:47pm.
'Another nap cut short,' Rebecca groaned to herself. She buried her face back in her pillow, hoping that the person at the door would go away so she could return to her much-needed sleep. A few moments of silence, of hope, and then -
BANG BANG BANG BANG. No luck. The knocking resumed, louder and more insistent than before.
"Ugh, alright I'm coming, I'M COMING JUST CHILL OUT" Rebecca huffed. She dragged herself into her apartment hallway and flung open the front door, staring blearily at the tall, lean figure in front of her. "Daniel? What are you doing here? Other than ruining my nap."
Daniel smirked. "Forgot about our project already? The one we've already got three extensions for? The one that's due next week? I've been trying to reach you all afternoon about it."
"Oh, fuck" Rebecca peeked guiltily at her notifications. 12 unread texts and a couple of missed calls greeted her. "Fuck, I'm so sorry, I've been so burnt out from work recently, I knocked out literally right when I got home."
"Well, luckily for you, I've made a lot of good progress" Daniel said as he brushed past her into the living room. He dropped onto the couch, pulling out a beaten-up laptop and plugging in a sleek gray VR headset. Rebecca gasped and sat down next to him on the couch.
"No way you finally got the game to run."
"Better hope I did. I don't think Parker's going to give us another extension."
"How did you even get it to work?"
"Turns out the game wasn't adjusting correctly to each user. I had to modify some code and write a whole new adaptive calibration protocol for the headset. The game's still not remotely close to being done, but at least now it starts." Daniel clicked around on his laptop before unplugging the headset and offering it to Rebecca. "Wanna try it out?"
Rebecca grabbed the headset and slipped it on. "Anything's better than the black screen we've been getting...Okay, let's see." She pressed the power button, and was suddenly greeted with a bright, pulsating mass of colors. "Whoaaa, this is new."
Daniel laughed. "Like I said, I had to rewrite the entire calibration. The eye-tracking should be much better now."
Through the haze of colors, Rebecca thought she noticed something...letters? Numbers? "Hey, what are those symbols? Moving around with the colors?"
"Oh good, you noticed. Those are part of the calibration sequence. They help adapt the calibration for each person that uses the headset. See if you can read them out for me? I want to see if it's working right."
"Uhhh, sure, I guess." Rebecca replied slowly. The swirling colors were starting to make her brain a little dizzy, as blurry shapes and colors constantly rotated in and out of her vision. She tried focusing on a fuzzy symbol twisting around the screen. "Uhh, 10?"
"Good, that's right, keep going."
Another number swirled into view. "9?"
"Good, next one."
"8?"
"Good, don't stop."
"7..."