"It's the bomb," Ximena babbled excitedly, untangling the cables to the headsets.
Shelly wasn't so sure she agreed. Her life was connected enough, without spending extra time playing with weird electronics. The evening could have been spent on a date, or studying, or just relaxing. Instead, she'd spent it listening about Ximena's new obsession, and now it was turning into some lame geekfest.
"Aren't these 3-D glasses like they used to use with old TVs?" Shelly asked, watching her friend tease out the cords and plug them into the surprisingly large box.
"Do you see a television?" the brunette replied, looking up and tossing her hair out of her eyes. "And maybe they are; Mick didn't say, but it isn't like he just bought them on Amazon."
Out of a dumpster seemed more likely, Shelly thought, but she kept the notion to herself. It was good to see Ximena feeling upbeat again, even if it meant putting up with... this. "Tell me again what the point of this is?"
"It's
virtual reality
," Ximena repeated, as if that explained everything. "Do you live under a rock?" She shook herself and handed one of the headsets to her friend. "Look, just work with me, okay? It's easier to see it than explain."
Shelly looked at the chunky glasses, which actually looked more like a cross between night-vision goggles and first-generation 3-D glasses. They probably were going to give her a raging headache. "Do I wear these over my glasses?" she asked, giving in.
"No," Ximena said. "The focus will adjust by itself." She pushed a button on the box, which began emitting a low hum, and put on her headset. "Just put them on and try to relax."
Rolling her eyes, now that her friend couldn't see her expression, Shelly set her prescription eyeglasses on the corner of Ximena's desk. She squirmed slightly, adjusting the pillow behind her back, and tucked an errant lock of auburn hair behind one ear. Seeing no further way to avoid it, Shelley settled the headset in place.
"There's nothing but static!" she complained after a long minute. "I don't think it's working."
"Just wait!" Ximena's voice sounded. "It takes a little time to calibrate or whatever."
"This is lame," Shelly retorted, but she kept with it, blinking periodically and feeling her eyes strain to make sense of what was in front of her.
Finally the speckled static seemed to resolve into sharper pixels, which then began subdividing themselves into a grey haze. Shelly was about to complain again when she realized the haze was fading like time-lapse video of a morning fog burning off.
Instead of a landscape, Shelly saw a cartoonish room, bereft of detail. Purple walls, tan floor, white ceiling. A few featureless brown boxes stood in for furniture, including the bed she sat on. Her first thought was that it made "South Park" look photorealistic.
"Oh, come on!" the redhead complained, looking at the figure sitting beside her. Ximena's avatar looked more impressive than the room, which wasn't saying much -- her friend looked like a refugee from some ancient pre-2000 video game.
It wasn't just the cartoonish effect, either; Ximena was wearing some ridiculous harem-type costume. As Shelly stared, her headset almost imperceptibly filled in additional detail, sharpening the figure until it was clear the outfit was more about leather and chains than gauze. It certainly didn't look anything like the low-rise sweats the brunette was wearing in the real world.
"Isn't it kewl?" Ximena asked. The figure's mouth wasn't quite in synchronization with the voice in Shelly's ears as she watched the avatar jerkily stand and display itself more clearly.
"Cool?" Shelly repeated, far less enthusiastically. "Why do women always end up looking like sluts? Don't programmers like looking at people with normal clothes?"
Ximena laughed. "It's not the real world, Shelly. Live a little! It didn't cost me anything, and it's not like anybody else will see this. Besides, you should talk!"
Shelly looked down at herself and realized she was naked! The body had all the featureless curves of a doll, but it was still embarrassing! The coed clapped her hands over herself, feeling a little disoriented by the feel of fabric under her hands and the visual impact of her "hands" stopping not quite on her "body." "Jesus, Ximena! How do I fix this?"
"Don't freak out," her friend reassured her. "Just imagine what you want. It's a little rough, at first, until you get the hang of it."
The redhead concentrated on the sweatshirt and shorts she knew she was wearing. After a long moment, the pale skin beneath her fingers turned to grey fabric. Shelly sighed and dropped her hands. "How do I look?"
"Unimaginative," Ximena replied. "See for yourself," she said, pointing.
Shelly noticed the walls had gained a little definition, and the darker oblong of the door had grown the full-length mirror she was accustomed to seeing on it. She stood unsteadily, still disoriented by the perceptible lag between her movements and the computer-generated scene, and took a few steps so she could see her reflection.
She just about tore off the headset in disgust. "Ximena! This is
not
what I look like!" Okay, the figure in the mirror did look vaguely Shelly-like, if her parents had raised her to be a slut. She stared into the mirror, gritting her teeth, until the inseams on the shorts lengthened a few inches and the sweatshirt swelled to the point where her nipples weren't pressing against it. Her avatar hadn't even
had
nipples a second ago, for God's sake!
It
was
kind of intriguing to watch the image shift, like molten wax, as her too-long untamed mane pulled itself back into a neat ponytail and retracted to its proper length. The frankly offensive acrylic stripper sandals melted away until they resembled her usual flip-flops. "Who programmed this thing, anyway? Mick? What a waste."
"Who cares?" Ximena asked. "We decide what we want to have happen, not somebody else!" She stood up and walked over to join Shelly; the visual acuity of the system had continued to improve, and the sway of the brunette's earrings and the chunky pendant around her neck looked almost natural.
Shelly pulled her eyes away from the expansive display of flesh around the pendant. "It seems -- I don't know -- disappointing. I thought maybe we could fly, or walk on Mars, or something unusual." She gestured around them. "We can sit around in the room anytime." It was looking, little by little, more pedestrian all the time -- the boxy furniture was beginning to gain resolution, and the walls were fading towards their usual boring beige.
"That stuff is boring," Ximena retorted. "Who wants to walk around on red dirt? There's nothing to see! I bet there's plenty of other things we could try that you'd never do in real life!" She popped her scanty top, revealing her boobs.
"Ximena!" yelped Shelly, feeling scandalized. A part of her watched the discarded bra -- or whatever -- fade and disappear before it hit the floor, but most of her attention was focused on
