Ron sighed and checked the clock. He had a few hours before bed, and nothing better to do. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to put in some time on his favorite VR RPG. He grabbed his headset and cleared out a section of his bedroom floor so he wouldn’t trip over anything and slipped on the headset and gloves.Warning: Unusual Network Activity“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled.The glitches in this game had been all over the news lately. Supposedly the company that manufactured it was star

“Ahahaha! Oh man! Those were the days,” laughed Gerdie.Three young ladies were sitting in the somewhat cramped central room of a college suite. In a normal house, calling this a living room would be a bit of an exaggeration, but since this was technically a dorm, it was head and shoulders above even the next level down in accommodations. And as it so happened, the room was more than big enough for three girls thanks to the fact that one of them was a victim of “the incident.”“Yeah, but

You are heading down the hallway of the headquarters. Your heart is still racing. The battle had been an intense one, but somehow, your side had prevailed. The commander had placed a great deal of responsibility in your hands. If you were honest with yourself, it was more than you ought to have been able to handle. But you remembered your training, and with a lot of skill and a little luck you pulled through.You had always been a skilled warrior, but until this moment, you’d never really s

Dim light filtered through an unfamiliar set of blinds. Judy felt the veil of sleep begin to slide away. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d woken up without having to be roused by her phone’s alarm, much feeling this refreshed. She squeezed her arms around the lovely, smooth, warm pillow she’d been cuddling with, and almost jumped as she felt it squeeze back. Slowly her wits returned to her. She blinked sleep from her eyes and found that she was still wrapped up wi

Vivvie nestled herself a little tighter in her “bed.” For the past few nights she simply hadn’t been able to get to sleep. She’d never really had trouble before. Part of it was probably the looming bills about to come due that she barely had money for. Budgeting was a new thing for her to consider, since she came from a world where the closest thing they had to an economy was the tendency for bigger more powerful creatures to take what they wanted from smaller more numerous ones.

Judy fiddled with the key to her apartment building’s outermost door as the wind and rain pelted her.“20% chance of showers my soaking wet fanny,” she muttered.Her umbrella threatened to pop inside out three times before she finally got the key to work and pushed into the narrow little foyer that led up to her room. She turned to shut the door behind her and paused. Something colorful caught her eye. It was bright and gay, even in this dreary rain. She blinked the rain from her eyes to

Anahita and Cordelia swam through the forest, a twist of magic allowing them to navigate the air just as though it were water.“If she wanted to do a solo performance that’s fine,” Cordelia said sullenly. “But she could have chosen a more convenient venue for it.”“I think she probably assumed when she invited us to a performance that we wouldn’t bring our gear,” Anahita said.Cordelia grunted and heaved her case. “I don’t go to a venue without a way to perform. Peia

Seera hopped to her feet at the sound of the doorbell. It had been ages since she’d had anyone over. She was the overseer of four tinies, something that had been an honor during the school year, but now that everyone was waiting for travel restrictions to lift, it was getting to be a bit much for her. Tinies could be fun--she certainly had a fun relationship with the ones under her care, but there comes a point when hanging out with someone your own size is a nice change of pace.The rules