Bee answered the door to find a package waiting on his doorstep, his name and address printed in plain text on top.

"Ugh. Better get you inside…"

Bee picked up the package and brought it inside, closing the door behind him.

His apartment was small. The sort of place a student on basic could afford. Still, it was his. If anything he considered himself lucky that he didn’t need to put up with a roommate. Even if it meant he had a little less space than he otherwise would, he preferred to have the space to himself.

Besides. No one would want to live with him anyway.

The little apartment had a small kitchen adjacent to the door, separated from the rest of the main living space by a narrow counter with a mess of take out containers containing food waste on top that he needed to take out. Across from the entrance to the kitchen, on the opposite side of the front door, was another doorway that led into the bathroom and, down the same wall from that, another door that opened into the bedroom. There was a large window on the far wall which let in some natural light. At least what could shine past the TV, wall of retro game systems and the modern peripherals needed to play them.

Bee shuffled inside, kicking blankets out of the way and dropping the box on a sofa that was pushed up against the counter, where it was just not visible from the door. Then he fetched a marker from a little cup he kept on top of the fridge.

Scribble Scribble.

And his name was rendered down to just the initials. B.E.

That taken care of, he returned the pen to its spot and then pulled out his phone. Earbuds in. Before dialing Danny.

"Hello?"

"Hi Danny. Umm, it’s Bee."

"Oh! Heya Bee! It’s rare for you to call me. What’s up?"

"Sorry…"

"Hey. Don’t apologize, okay?"

Sorry, Bee mentally repeated. "Okay. My Dive system got delivered. 24 hours my ass, right?"

Bee could hear Danny stifle a laugh into the receiver. Maybe she was somewhere public?

"That’s Canada Post for you. But hey, at least you didn’t need to wait for customs."

"Please don’t remind me of that!" Bee sighed. "Anyway. I was kinda hoping you could help walk me through setup? Like, things to watch out for and such?"

"I could come over if you want? Maybe order Pizza?"

Bee looked around. The last time his friends had been to his place had been when he’d moved in. By the time they were done moving stuff, they were all too exhausted to unpack anything, so they had just ordered Chinese and set up the TV right on the floor to stream some movies.

Now though?

...Bee didn’t even have a proper table. Usually he ate at his computer desk,  tucked into a corner between the bedroom door and console wall, or failing that on a little fold out table that he kept for long game sessions on his retro consoles.

"You doing okay Bee?" Danny, a hint of concern in her voice.

"Sorry…" He could practically hear the eye roll. "Umm, I think I’ll be fine over the phone? I think I mostly just want someone to run things by, and maybe to troubleshoot if something goes wrong. Is that okay?"

"Of course that’s okay Bee. I’ll just switch over to hands free mode and…" The sound of Danny’s voice changed subtly. It gained a little more boom to it as the microphone’s sensitivity changed. "There we go."

Bee nodded to himself.

"Right."

He picked the package back up and carried it into his bedroom. 

Apart from the bed, pushed up against one wall, the room was empty. There were no dressers and the ledge of the window was used in place of a night stand. It was clean in a way that said more about how it was lived in then it did about any commitment to cleanliness. The only exception was the closet, which Bee quickly walked up to.

Inside were stacks of boxes, each filled with parts used for maintaining and restoring retro electronics. There was also a larger folding table, used as a work bench when needed, and several tool kits for varying tasks. Bee pulled out one of the kits, a small plastic container with glue, sandpaper, several pliers and utility knives inside. 

He frowned at the coating of dust on the box and made a half-hearted attempt to clear it off before setting it down beside the package and pulling out one of the utility knives.

"I’m opening the box now. Anything I should know?"

"Kay! Should be two different things inside."

Bee cut away the packaging tape and returned the knife to its container, then pulled open the package.

It sure was full of packaging paper…

But there, beneath the mountain of waste, was the prize.

Sure enough, it was actually two different items. One was clearly the head visor for the dive system, with a plastic panel in the cardboard that allowed Bee to see the headset inside. The other box had no window, but it did have a picture of a sort of tv box looking thing on the front? 

At least that antiquated technology was the best point of comparison Bee could think of. On the back was another picture, this time of it sitting on a table beside a bed.

"Got them both. I/O and Tower?"

"Bee, you’re lucky that I’ve taken computer history."

"Hey! Sometimes people put modern PC control stacks into towers!"

"But most people don’t." She choked back another laugh. "Anyway, you’re right. The visor plugs into the control unit. It’s pretty small, so you can just put it on your night stand and it should be fine."

Oh.

"Umm...would under the bed be okay?"

Danny made thinking noises into the phone. She was definitely playing it up at least a little, right?"

"I don’t see why not? The cable should be long enough and there’s no air vents to worry about getting clogged.

Sleeping with cables. Tossing around. A sharp pull.

Bee shivered. "Will that be fine? Sleeping with the cables like that? They got to be pretty thick, right?"

"They’re safety cables." Danny’s voice was suddenly more reserved. "They’ll just unplug if something pulls too hard. Besides. You’ll probably not be moving around much while diving."

Danny nodded to the empty room. "Sorry..."

A loud sigh. "And stop apologizing! You’re not doing anything wrong, you know?"

Bee returned a non-committal grunt.

"How do I configure this thing, anyway?"

Danny paused before responding. Perhaps considering whether she should let Bee dodge the question. "That’s easy. It has an AR mode. Doesn’t use up your dive hours when in AR, either."

"Dive Hours?"

"Remember from the cafe? Like we said then, that’s hardware level. You need to spend two minutes out of dive for every minute you spend in it, or close to that. The idea is to make sure people eat, bathe and move, rather than spending days at a time in the machine."

Bee felt the knot in his chest tense. It was always there, but sometimes it was worse than others. Not that he could ever tell what made it shift.

"I guess that makes sense. Wouldn’t want to starve because I lost track of time playing a game."

Bee took out the electronics and plugged them in. Danny was right; The cable was large, but it had a magnetic clasp that came off without excessive force. And the cable itself was 2 or 3 meters long. more than enough to keep from pulling taut. Even so, he carefully positioned it behind his pillows, making sure it only came out where it needed to, and that it never went near his neck.

Sometimes it was just easier to play things safe. Right?

Okay…

Once satisfied with the cabling, he kicked the control box under the bed, along with any power wires that were sticking out. Rather than lie down, he sat on the edge of the bed, headset resting beside him.

"I’m going to put you on hold until I can transfer you to this thing, okay?"

"Sounds good! I’ll talk to you in a few.

Bee breathed in deeply.

Held.

And released.

He put on the helmet.

And pressed the button on its side to turn it on.

Kaosubaloo

And part two begins. Sorry for the delay! The very first and very last couple of chapters were hard AF to write, but I think I like what I ended up with. We'll be posting this weekly up until the end of part, by which time I'll hopefully have nearly finished part 3.

Like what you've read? You can get this whole arc early on My Patreon!

Last of all, a little recommendation: Ascension: Tales of Twin Tails is a lovely story about a pair of trans girl who were ostracized by society but found their own way to give back to it...namely stealing from the ultra wealthy. Their journal is a fascinating one, with great action scenes, a good mind for pacing and the right balance between serious soul searching and silly nonsense. Give it a try!