Today I was... 1

Today I was an old man.

 

As I walked through the crowded atrium of Plaza 3, I might as well have been invisible among the neon geisha, bestial demihumans and packs of stock avatar noobs. No one spared me so much as a glance.

 

I thought it might be nice to go somewhere with good scenery, so I pulled up a browser window and started typing in 'scenic locations v-space', then thought better of it. I was an old man, and old men did things the old-fashioned way.

 

Every copy of Plaza had an information center in the atrium, though very few people used it. A web search would get you more information, faster, and you wouldn't need to interact with anyone to get it. But it was perfect for me, right now.

 

A young man wearing futuristic armor and a red headband sat behind the info desk, scrolling through a private window and looking deathly bored. I cleared my throat as I approached, but the small sound was lost in the din of the atrium.

 

"Excuse me son," I said, my voice comfortably worn-in.

 

The man looked up, saw me and closed his window, the long tails of his headband whirling around as he sat up in his chair.

 

"How can I help you, sir?" he asked.

 

Judging from his inflection, the man was probably a boy, probably a college student making a little money on the side. I smiled warmly at him.

 

"I'd like to go somewhere pleasing to the eye," I told him, "somewhere I can relax and enjoy the scenery."

 

The boy thought for a moment, then pulled up a public window on the top of the desk which showed pictures of a titanic waterfall.

 

"You have been to Stephenson Falls?" he asked. "The particle effects are very nice."

 

I scratched my beard and considered.

 

"I've heard that it's a big tourist destination," I said. "Maybe too many people for me."

 

The boy fiddled with his headband, then changed the window. Now it showed an ancient-looking Asian-style tea house, situated in the middle of a small lake.

 

"Not too many people go here," the boy told me. "It is a place where people go to drink tea and play Go, and it is much more quiet than here."

 

"That sounds lovely," I told him.

 

"You will need a pass to get in," the boy said, "but don't worry, my father works there. Here."

 

The boy summoned a small rectangle of red silk into existence, and handed it to me.

 

"You can use that to port there. After you port, there will be no trouble getting in."

 

I smiled as I took the pass. Amazing what people will do for you when you're old.

 

"Thank you," I said. "You have been very kind."

 

I placed a gold token on the counter; a decently sized tip. The boy bowed his head and the headband swirled around him, obeying some kind of physics that might have made more sense in a fighting game.

 

I rubbed the pass and got the sensation of fine silk. An embroidered message appeared on the fabric.

 

'BURN TO ENTER'

 

I took a battered zippo from my shirt pocket and flicked it open, holding it under the pass. It ignited in a flurry of sparks and I found myself standing on the mirror-like surface of the lake, my feet making small ripples where they rested on the water. Looking up, I saw the tea house, stairs coming down to the water on all four sides.

 

A good place to meet old people, surely.

 

>might continue at some point