Bee woke alone in the dive room. The first thing he noticed was that his body didn’t feel right. He felt drowned in a sense of dissonance. It was extremely uncomfortable, though not so heavy as to prevent coming up for air.

He found himself breathing heavily despite himself. It was just a weird reaction from logging out, right? Otherwise he felt surprisingly awake. Stiff with sleep without the accompanying mental effects. Honestly, that was probably a big part of what was causing him to feel this way. Right?

Right...

The small room was dark, lit only by red LEDs, at least until Bee started moving. Eventually the motion sensors got the memo and flicked on the main lights.

Bee stood and stretched, checked the time (a little past 7:00) and exited into the hall, then the main room after that.

A new person sat at the main desk for the cafe. It was a woman with dark Dreadlocks wearing jeans and a light top, with a cardigan over that. She had large tiger-print glasses. 

Apart from her, the front was mostly empty this time of night. The Cafe part of the Dive Cafe would close overnight, but there was still maybe an hour or two before that happened.

“Hey,” Bee croaked. He cleared their throat before trying again. “Hey.”

The desk lady waved back. “Welcome back. I see you woke up a little early. Everything go fine?”

Bee nodded. “Yep Just found a good place to stop.” He paused. “Is it normal to feel all weird after waking up?”

“How so?” She wore a concerned but unworried look on her face.

“It’s hard to describe...it’s like, my whole body is stiff? And everything feels off.”

“No numbness or headache?”

Bee shook his head. “Nah.”

She ‘Hmm’d and checked her computer.

“Stiffness is not unusual right after waking up. A couple people in a hundred will get headaches from Diving, but it sounds like you’re fine from that.” She looked apologetic. “I’m afraid I’m not sure about general feelings of offness. I would recommend asking a doctor if it doesn’t go away?”

Bee nodded and sighed, then waved goodbye. “Thanks.”

“I hope you had a good time!”

He grinned. “Yep. It was actually a lot of fun.”

He headed for the nearest transit station to make his way home. Once on the train he pulled out his phone. He opened their friend group chat.

> Bee: So I’m all done.

> Bee: I have to admit, I had fun.

> Danny: Told you you would!

> Bee: I did wake up stiff and sore though.

> Bee: ...Maybe a personal unit would help with that?

> Danny: Damn, Bee, that was fast!

> Danny: You want help getting it set up?

> Bee: *nods*

> Bee: Yeah, I’ll need help figuring this all out. I’ll let you know the schedule tomorrow?

> Danny: You’d better! 

> Laura: OMG I can’t wait to play with you!

> Laura: I’m still going to be busy for the next few days though. I’ll definitely let you know as soon as we can play together!

“Yeah…”

Bee really did look forward to it. Like, a lot. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. It felt like it was poisoning everything while he was aware of it.

Hopefully it would go away after a good sleep...Or four hours of sleep, anyway. That’s apparently what he was in for after diving during the day.

Kaosubaloo

And that's the end of Day 1!

I'm still in the process of writing Day 2, so it may be an extra week or two before I start posting it. Hopefully not too long because I'm loving this story and want to keep sharing it. I seem to have gotten myself past the part I was struggling with at any rate.

In the mean time, I recommend checking out some other stories in the trans tag, such as Chornicles of Aonus by Roxyreads. Try giving it a read!