They’d agreed to meet up in the small ground floor reception area of the dormitory building the following morning and Isla was the first to arrive.
The designated meeting time was 11:00am but Isla had been drawn into another infuriating argument with Karkos after trying and failing to persuade the morose boy to join the outing.
She had stormed out of her apartment thirty minutes early.
Thankfully, she’d decided to force down a liquid breakfast before the confrontation, so she wouldn’t go hungry. This time, she had taken the digestion medicine as advised after dealing with painful stomach cramps the night before, likely caused by the skipped step.
She found a seat in the reception area and slumped into it with a sigh. She wasn’t feeling very well.
Her head was aching and she felt nauseous. Almost certainly the onset of the withdrawal symptoms.
From what she had read on her tablet, the withdrawal period could last as long as a month and would intensify over several weeks before slowly improving. Joy.
Making an effort to suppress her foul mood, she took a moment to be thankful for Yaeh’s initiative in suggesting the outing. None of them knew if they would be in a fit state to enjoy an outing by the following weekend.
The door to the outside opened smoothly and another VC37 student entered the building. It was Lanc.
Her heart jumped. She straightened up in her seat and gave him a hopeful wave.
Lanc looked at her for a moment then stiffened when he recognised her.
She started to greet her boyfriend, but Lanc quickly hurried through the entrance of the first floor apartments and disappeared without a word, cutting Isla off mid sentence.
This was the second time that he had completely ignored her since they’d been unplugged.
It was definitely intentional.
Isla clicked her tongue, anger and frustration returning to her stronger than ever.
She thought about following him onto the first floor and confronting him. But what good would that do?
Anger chrysalised into painful shades of betrayal.
When she needed him the most, he wasn’t there for her.
Tears welled up and all of a sudden, the world seemed unbearably overwhelming.
“This isn’t fair.” She whispered to the empty room, wiping her eyes.
She considered calling it quits on the day and heading back to her apartment, but that idea just annoyed her more.
Instead, she took full advantage of the privacy of the empty reception area to brood in peace.
Twenty minutes later, Aeon exited the stairwell and entered the reception.
“Morning.” He greeted Isla cheerfully.
“Good morning Aeon.” She replied, roused from her misery by the boy's sunny smile.
He casually strolled over to the seating area and took the seat opposite her. He was wearing a pair of grey shorts and a t-shirt which suited his boyish nature.
Aeon was the shortest amongst the third floor boys, with a messy mop of golden blonde hair that fell across his eyes.
Since leaving his tank, he had quickly picked up a habit of pushing his hair back when it fell across his vision.
Despite some complicated history with Aeon she considered him a friend of sorts.
In Class 37, they were kindred spirits of a sort. Aeon often made himself the centre of attention with his antics and indomitable good mood, and Isla often found herself the centre of attention as the person that the other girls in 37 would flock around.
Their roles and standing were different in the class, but they shared similar spotlights and she had always found kinship through that.
Here in physical space, Isla was shocked by how little Aeon had changed. He was the only person she’d spent any time with out of the tank that she could say that about.
He was a tiny bastion of consistency that she was quickly finding herself appreciative of.
He looked at her and pushed his hair out of his eyes. “You ok?” He asked straightforwardly.
She considered lying.
“Not really.” She answered. “I saw Lanc again. He’s definitely ignoring me.”
Aeon frowned. “Did something happen?” He asked.
“Nothing! We even hung out the night before we were unplugged. Nothing seemed wrong.” Isla answered, her stormy mood showing on her face.
“Well, that sucks. Sorry Isla.” Aeon offered. “But hey, until then, you have all of us to talk to.” He added with a smile.
Isla smiled back ruefully. There was a pleasant truth to what he said.
It was an unexpected friend group which would never have coalesced in Plugnet, but one which she already found herself thankful for.
She couldn’t imagine doing this without them.
Soon after, they were joined by Cecil and Yaeh, both wearing their jumpsuits, and lastly by Sana who had tied the arms of her jumpsuit around her waist, making a makeshift pair of pants to match her grey tank top.
It was a good look. Isla copied it.
They ventured out together to explore the campus island, onto streets paved with polycrete bricks. As with all materials used in the construction of Venus City, the lightweight bricks were highly resistant to sulphuric acid.
Today, the aerodomes were open and the windbreaks down, allowing fresh Venusian air to circulate throughout the long circular avenues of the campus island.
Each layer of defense protected against one of the two main hazards this high up in Venus’s atmosphere. The aerodomes would close if any acid clouds passed too close, and the windbreaks would be raised against stormwinds.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
However, despite still needing modest defenses against the hostile planet, the fact that the upper atmosphere of Venus was entirely breathable by human lungs was a monumental success of the terraforming effort.
The surface was still centuries, if not millenia away from being habitable. But the skies of Venus had been claimed by the ever tenacious human race.
Isla felt the warm wind against her cheeks as it caught her hair, whipping the black strands along the direction of its path. The open sky above made her slightly dizzy if she stared at it too long so she kept her eyes downwards on the cobbled street.
She was surprised by how many other dormitory buildings there were. Each building was assembled in long interconnected rings that circled the island, intersected by highways leading to the centre.
Once reaching the nearest such avenue leading to the centre of the campus island, she could see that there were dozens of rings of dorm buildings.
“There must be hundreds, maybe thousands of people living here!” She said to Aeon who walked next to her.
“Yeah, but look at all of this space. Imagine how many plugtanks they could fit into all these buildings. You likely could fit ten or twenty times as many people on this island using tank warehouses. They must really value these dorm setups to lose out on so much real estate.” He noted.
Isla looked at him. That had been an uncharacteristically intelligent comment.
While thankfully there weren’t any crowds out on the streets, they did pass several other students as they walked.
Some walked alone, others in groups. Some wore academy jumpsuits but most were wearing vibrant and colourful clothing in a variety of styles.
The other thing that caught Isla’s attention was how healthy the other students looked. Their skin looked smooth and hydrated, their hair was styled and glossy and their bodies bore little resemblance to the emaciated tank-dependent forms of the Class 37 students.
“How do you think they all look so good?” Isla asked Sana who was watching a full figured female student walking in the other direction.
“No idea. Look how nice their hair is.” Sana remarked, her hand going absentmindedly to feel at her own greasy and frayed brown hair.
“Have you noticed the other thing though?” Sana added, turning from the curvy student to look at Isla.
“Yeah. Boobs.” Isla answered.
Sana grinned at her eagerly. “No matter what, I’m getting some of those!” She declared.
Isla rolled her eyes. Typical Sana. Still, good for her.
She didn’t know if she shared Sana’s enthusiasm on the matter, but it wasn’t a prospect that she found herself particularly opposed to. Unlike some others that she’d spoken to.
Time would tell what lay ahead in that regard. Though Isla couldn’t help but feel that there were more pressing matters to worry about than tits.
It took the group ten minutes of walking to reach the large shopping complex at the centre of the campus island.
As they approached, the scale of the structure became apparent. It almost reached to the open aerodome above them.
They entered the superstore through the nearest set of doors and found themselves in a large plaza area. Shops and food vendors surrounded them on all sides, arranged in multiple tiers connected by moving staircases.
Yaeh looked down at her tablet in panic to consult a map of the shopping centre.
The complex was vast, housing far more than simple shops. There were dozens of restaurants and food vendors, a multi-screen entertainment hub, a gym, a health clinic, a spa, a sports venue and much more.
She tried not to feel overwhelmed by the grand structures' internal complexities. When she began to scroll through the endless variety of stores, she failed at the effort.
Yaeh turned to look at Cecil who stood silently next to her. She quickly tabbed over to the notes program and wrote a simple request for help.
“Woah, that’s really all in here?” Cecil gasped as she showed him the floor plans. “Where do we start?”
She nodded at him to indicate that she agreed with the question. Somebody would need to answer it. Ideally somebody other than her or Cecil.
She looked to Sana and Isla, but the other girls were staring around at the imposing surroundings, mouths agape. Isla took a step backwards as if fighting an urge to flee.
“What the f-” Sana began to murmur under her breath before being cut off by a loud exclamation to her left.
“Hey, look! That store sells syrup-milk!” Aeon declared loudly, pointing at a small vendor tucked between two larger stores. A wide variety of colourful matte liquids were on display, arranged in tanks.
Aeon set off in the direction of the vendor, and after a moment of bewildered hesitation, Isla followed. Not wanting to be left behind, Sana trailed after them.
Cecil looked down at Yaeh and they shared a sigh of relief before hurrying to catch up to their trailblazing friends.
“Is that real strawberry?” Aeon asked the vendor who stood behind a counter with the rows of colourful tanks arranged behind him.
“I mean, I guess. It’s mostly sugar though.” The vendor answered with a shrug. “Hey are you kids fresh out of the tank or what?” He asked looking around the group with their emaciated forms and academy jumpsuits.
“Yeah… More or less.” Aeon answered with a shrug.
“How fresh?” The vendor asked, eyes narrowing.
“Uh, this is our second day.” Isla answered.
“Wow, pretty adventurous for your second day on the real side. Took me months to leave the dorms. Good for you. But no way should you be eating or drinking anything you find here until your stomachs are adjusted. Not unless you want to be puking rainbows tonight.” He finished with a chuckle.
“Aw man.” Aeon moaned. “I’ll be back strawberries!” He vowed as the group retreated from the colourful drink vendor.
“Oh hey, that’s a clothing store!” Isla announced, spotting a shopfront one level up.
As the group approached the new store, Yaeh could see mannequins dressed in various styles arrayed in both the store windows as well as on the floor of the store itself. Strangely though, there were no clothes to be seen for sale inside.
“Hi guys. Here to browse?” The perky assistant asked as soon as they entered the store. She wore fashionable clothes herself, as well as an unusual pair of glasses with a strange shimmer to the lenses.
Yaeh noticed she was carrying a box containing more of the spectacle-like devices.
“Well, we were wondering how people get new clothes?” Isla asked.
“Oh wow, you guys are brand new aren’t you?” The assistant replied, prompting awkward nods from the group.
“Has anything been said to you about a dress code?” The assistant asked.
“Dress code?” Sana repeated, confused.
“Oh, if you haven’t been told about a dress code yet, you won’t have to worry about it. They would have told you on the first day if you had any restrictions. Here, these are visualisers. Put them on.”
The assistant held out a device to each member of the group.
Once Yaeh had placed the glasses on her face, she realised that they were a kind of augmented reality device.
To her side she could now see a large floor length mirror which hadn't been there a moment before and various icons floated in the air around her. She began to press them one by one, exploring the functions of the new device.
“These will let you browse different outfits and will generate a real time image of how they look on you. You can then show any outfits you try on to the other members of your group also wearing a visualiser. Then when you’ve decided what you’d like to buy let me know and I can upload the licenses to your tablets so you can print them when you get home.” The assistant explained cheerfully.
“Print them?” Cecil asked.
“You will need a garment printer first before you can print out any new clothes. You can buy one at the tech store on the floor above us.”
“We can’t just buy the clothes from you directly?” Isla asked.
“No. We don’t have any storage room or printers here. Besides there are millions of garments in the library. It’s better this way anyway, once you own the license for a garment you can print as many copies as you like.” The assistant explained patiently.
Yaeh had already found the catalog and was rapidly flicking through various outfits. She watched in the virtual mirror as outfit after outfit was overlaid over her form. It was almost like customising her plugnet avatar. Different yet familiar.
The problem was that she didn’t like her new body much.
It wasn’t just her voice that had failed to match her self image, everything about her physical body did.
She was used to being much taller and hearing a mature and deeply feminine voice when she spoke.
Looking at herself in the mirror reinforced how painfully different the hand she’d been dealt by reality was.
She realised that she didn’t hate her hair or eyes though as she watched her reflection looking back at her with violet irises. The purple tones of both features resonated with her in a way that she could accept.
Nearby the assistant was showing the others how to access the catalogue as well. Sana and Isla were having a great time comparing outfits and styles.
Cecil was quietly looking through options nearby. Staring at himself in a virtual mirror that Yaeh couldn’t see.
He seemed clueless when it came to fashion as he swiped through one outfit after another with a perplexed expression.
Yaeh found herself excited by the prospect of helping him to pick out new outfits. She must remember to offer once they’d bought a printer.
“How does everyone else’s hair and skin look so good too?” Isla asked the friendly assistant.
“Well, a good diet and hydration will improve both a lot over time. Nobody looks worse than they do fresh out of the tank. No offense.” The assistant explained kindly.
“But the real secret is cosmetics. When you check out the garment printers at the tech store, look for the cosmetic masks.” She advised sagely.
Despite the novelty of the clothes store, their lack of a printer eventually led the group to check out the tech store as their next destination.
This shop was much bigger, one of the largest in the complex as unlike clothing and other luxuries that could be printed at home, tech needed to be physically sold.
Yaeh was familiar with most of the devices on offer due to their presence in media that she’d watched, as well as her own research. She navigated the store eagerly.
The main barrier was the price. Checking her balance on her tablet, Yaeh realised that she wouldn’t be able to afford anything by herself as she didn’t have enough credits for most of the devices.
“Oh, I’ve found the printers. Woah, there are loads of different kinds.” Aeon announced from a distant corner of the large shop floor.
Indeed, the selection of printers was impressive. Not just garment printers, but chemical printers, circuit printers, food printers, generic plastic and ceramic printers. Even the original kind, paper printers.
“I can’t afford it.” Isla announced glumly, looking at the price display by the garment printers.
“How much?” Sana asked.
“7999C” Isla answered. “I only have 5000C.”
“Same as me.” Aeon agreed, scratching his head. “Shame I really wanted one. How often did Ms Amelie say we would get more money?”
“Every month.” Cecil answered.
It would be a long time to wait, Yaeh thought.
“What if we bought one together and shared it?” She suggested, holding out her tablet for Isla to read.
“Oh that’s a great idea Yaeh! If all five of us chip in, we could buy a garment printer and a cosmetic thingy too. And we’d still have almost 2000C left each!”
“Sounds good to me.” Aeon agreed.
“I’m in.” Sana nodded.
“It’s a deal!” Cecil stated with a smile. He held up his tablet to her own and a chime indicated that he’d transferred the necessary credits to her device.
The others did the same, one after another giving their share of the money to Yaeh.
Yaeh smiled. Being part of a group wasn’t so bad.
She purchased the devices, entering their address and room number for delivery.
“Well, I guess Cecil and Yaeh’s place is fashion HQ now!” Aeon joked.
Oh bother! Yaeh thought. She hadn’t considered that.
Unfortunately it was too late to change the delivery address.
