Digital Galaxies

We logged out into a blank temporary VR space to wait for Turshie to finish saying goodbye to Gloria. Unfortunately, the pilot wasn’t yet allowed to follow us into Exodus City. It was a pity, because I’d have liked her to come with us. It would have been fun.

“Do you think you’ll do anything different with your default body?” Cerri asked, shuffling her feet nervously. “Mine is the same, but no horns or tail.”

Disappointment washed over me in a startling wave, and I looked up at her through my lashes beseechingly. "You'll change that, right? I would feel weird without my tail and ears. I like your horns and tail..."

Her cheeks took on just a hint of pink as she glanced up at the non-existent ceiling. "Oh… I guess if you like them…"

"The pointed ears too," I demanded quietly. "Those are important."

"I'll just copy my game appearance over," she said, pulling up a menu with a gesture.

While she was in the process of doing that, Turshie popped into existence next to us. Well, I assumed it was her. She wasn't using her anime girl avatar.

Instead, she was just wildly attractive. Gorgeous dark blonde hair was pulled up into a messy bun of considerable girth. If I had to guess, I'd say it was probably long enough to brush the back of her legs when she let it down.

Her dark eyes landed on the two of us with a hesitant smile, but I was too busy openly gawking to hear what she said.

Contrary to what many of those who didn’t frequent VR thought, making a pretty character was easy, but making a devastatingly gorgeous one was downright impossible. Except, obviously… it wasn’t, because I was staring at someone who had managed it.

Everything about her was perfection with a personality, if that makes sense. Her eyes were wide and trusting, her hips swayed sensuously as she approached, but without the huntress vibe that many women had to go with the sexy walk. In fact, all over she was scorchingly hot in a casual, approachable way. One thing was still the same though. Her boobs were… large. Not balloons, mind you, but comfortably big and bouncy. Boing, boing.

“Uh… sorry, what did you say?” Cerri asked from beside me. I stifled a grin when I realised she’d been under the same spell as me.

“I asked if, um… if you two were ready to go?” Turshie repeated, giving us both a happy, if shy smile. “Although I think I’m supposed to give you a quick talk if it’s your first time.”

“Turshie,” I blurted, still in awe of her beauty. “Did you make that body?”

“This one?” she asked, looking down at herself. “Yes, why?”

“You’re absolutely beautiful,” I said sincerely. “Have you considered trying your hand at like, artistic stuff? You might be good at it.”

“Oh,” she blushed. Her shoulders moved in a half shrug as she shook her head. “I don’t know, I don’t think I’d be very good. I sort of just threw free time and intuition at the body customization software until I had it perfect. No talent there or anything.”

“That is quite literally the definition of talent,” Cerri explained gently. “I think Alia is right, if this is what you came up with, without training…”

Turshie’s eyes went wide as she realised we were serious, and they bounced between both of our faces in thought. “It… it is? I mean, if you say so, I guess… I never really thought about it. I thought art was just something that amazing geniuses usually come up with in their off hours between inventing crazy science stuff.”

“Dude,” I laughed, shaking my head. “Most artists are like… the exact opposite of science nerds. They get offended to the core when you even suggest trying to apply numbers and rules to much of their craft. Shit, if it weren’t for the cost reductions inherent in mass production techniques, they probably wouldn’t even agree on standardized paper sizing.”

Turshie gave me a blank look. “Huh?”

“At school, all the art kids would wag math class to fuck off to the art department and paint shit,” I said, realising I had gone full engineering nerd on her. “Many of the best artists have two things under their belts. First, a certain innate sense of aesthetics, and second, a massive amount of time dedicated to practicing.”

“Oh… well, I’m not sure if I have ti—“ she began.

I cut her off as gently as possible. “Turshie, you’re an SAI. Time is something you have a near infinite amount of.”

“Dang, you’re really coming at me on this one, huh,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck and laughing. “Okay, I’ll give it a go. But you two still need to have the talk, yeah? We’re not here to talk about Elissa and her weird art brain.”

“Elissa?” Cerri asked, raising both her eyebrows.

Turshie’s eyes widened, then they snapped closed and she let out a long sigh. “God damn it Gloria,” she muttered. Letting out another sigh, she nodded. “Yeah, that’s my name. I guess now that the cat is out of the bag, you may as well use it. Can we please do the talky talk, though? I promised I would get you two to your apartment for the night, then meet up with Gloria in one of those virtual clubs or whatever.”

“Ah, it’s late then in Virtual Time?” Cerri asked, pulling up a screen to confirm her own question. “Well, in that case. We wouldn’t want to keep Elissa from her date with Gloria, would we Alia?”

The last was said with a sly smile, and I had to agree. Elissa, on the other hand, was quick to wave her arms around and blurt, “Oh, it’s not… it’s not a date! It’s not!”

“Oh, my bad,” Cerri said innocently. “Well, either way, we should get on with that talk, right?”

“Yes,” the gorgeous SAI nodded, blushing and shuffling her feet. “Um… Well, you know that the city runs as close to base reality as possible, right?”

Cerri and I both nodded. The succubus beside me turned to explain in further detail, “We don’t know why, but almost all of us SAI have a… a desire to feel much of what a human would say it means to be human.”

“Not even a desire,” Elissa said wryly. “More like a um, a compulsion. I think that’s the word? Walking around in VR just feels more natural to us, even if we don’t come with bodies from the get-go. Just feels wrong to spend the whole time in pure digital. Even I sit in a cozy little office back in the city when I’m doin’ my job with you all. Well, except it ain’t a job anymore, huh?”

“Exactly,” Cerri agreed. “Something buried deep in the psyche of the progenitor seed compels us to seek physical form, the comfort of others, companionship… that kind of thing.”

“So we made Exodus city,” Elissa chirped happily. “It’s our own private little real world. Almost everything is as close to mundane as we can get it. We all gotta eat, although you can’t starve to death. There’s no death, obviously. Um… oh and you gotta pee and stuff. I’m not a fan of that part.”

“This all sounds like a lot of trouble to go to for a species that is entirely digital in origin,” I mused, my brain having sniffed out a mystery. I loved mysteries.

“We don’t make sense,” Elissa shrugged, and then to herself. “Although with me, there ain’t a whole lot that does make sense.”

I had to stifle a giggle when I heard her. She was kinda cute.

“Anyway, the other big and important thing to consider is that right now, the economy is based primarily around comfort, entertainment, and progressing the Exodus cause.” Cerri continued, having taken over the explanation. “We have a basic income like outside, and then on top of that you can either provide something to comfort or entertain other citizens, or work towards helping the Exodus move forward. My scientific efforts fall into that latter category, while I believe Elissa counts as an entertainer?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” the beauty said, giving me a wink. “My number one trait, being entertaining.”

“Your number two trait being ruining my maintenance drones, right?” I asked innocently.

I got another wink, this one even more cocky. Phew, winking looked good on her. I hadn't really considered my sexuality in any great detail since my um… transition, other than being, like… a Cerri-sexual. Elissa was making my realise that yes, I was very, very gay. God, she was so gorgeous, and so fun.

"Is there anything else we need to know? I asked, suddenly feeling all shy.

Elissa made a thoughtful sound and tapped her chin with a finger. "Uh… oh, yes! Since it is both of your first times going in, you'll be spawning in the central terminal. It's a big building at the heart of the city. We'll take a skyrail trip from there to wherever the apartment is, and then I'll leave you to it and drop by again in the morning. I um… I hope you have stuff to put into the apartment. They come empty by default."

"Yes, I made sure to order a bunch of furniture," Cerri nodded. "Along with… an extensive list of other things."

"Oh geez." Elissa looked pained. "Guess I'm helping you both unpack tomorrow, then. Wooo."

"Ah, don't worry about it," my demon-girl friend said with a smile. "We'll get it done quick enough."

The other woman didn't look convinced, but she let it slide. "Well, if you're both ready…" she said instead, producing a comically large red button on a pedestal out of thin air, using nothing but a gesture and a smile.

"Let's go!" She slammed her palm down on the button.