A human built a full VR system in their quarters on the station. Their friend had to remind them that there's life outside of that world, too. -- Anon Guest
Virtuality is a hard habit to break. Rescued from a planet in which reality was too harsh for emotional health, Xae spend most of hir waking hours with a screen directly in front of hir eyes. Hir habitat was worse, with the walls showing virtual environments in the rare moments that ze wasn't in hir walk-anywhere harness-platform.
It was not made for guests. It was made for playing.
Given that Xae was an ex-Deregger, some of that was understandable. However, too much of a good thing had definitely met the boundary line for addiction. Such as playing tabletop games via virtual assistant when the other players were on the same ship.
Companion Yauk had had enough of Xae's excuses. There wasn't anything stopping hir from meeting the real world with hir own eyes. For this exercise in Xae's therapy, Yauk had gained permission to be rude. So they approached Xae in the break lounge and lifted hir Aureality glasses[1] from hir face.
"You are missing shore leave," said Yauk. "I would like a fully aware Human guarding me for my journey today. You did promise."
"It's today, huh?"
"It is today. Clean break. Put the eyescreens on their charger and I will hold your hand."
"Oooh, this is gonna be like an itch I can't scratch."
"I am well aware," smiled Companion Yauk. "This is necessary. Your escape method is redundant, and it is time to enforce that notion."
With some ceremony, Xae took off hir Aureality glasses and hung them up in their charger. Ze immediately started hir de-stressing breathing. Muttering, "All is calm. All is well," under hir breath.
Twenty steps to the airlock. Ten steps through the airlock.
Xae would later liken it to hir first time wearing the glasses, because of course that was hir only frame of reference. Back on hir homeworld, they had been a relief from dismal reality. Ze had sunk every spare monetary unit into improving hir Aureality and Virtuality experience.
It was better than life.
Life in the Alliance had so many improvements, true, but the call of the eyescreen was too alluring. Until now.
They had real live plants in every public area. Every colour of the visible spectrum on display. Cogniscents of every walk of life sharing space with each other and being polite, because that was the right and moral thing to do.
Yauk lead hir to one of the many Station Parks. Where even more greenery was permitted to coexist with everything else. They showed hir a patch of very short greenery and sang, "Ta-dah!"
"Pardon?"
"Now you can say you have touched grass."
[1] Aureality - Augmented Reality. Using two eyescreens, the user can change reality to suit assorted offensensitivity filters, or merely make the working day a little more fun. Since Xae is using Aureality during break time, one can safely presume that hir habit is extreme.
[Photo by Ochir-Erdene Oyunmedeg on Unsplash]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends! Or visit my hub site to see what else I'm up to.
Send me a prompt [81 remaining prompts!]