Surrounded by many friends and lovers, Aia has always felt lonely. Changing appearance many times, she always felt like she is not enough. Life was passing away, while Aia spent all of her time in the next generation metaverse called Elysium, a real...
"Why do you feel like there's something wrong with the real you? Who told you that you are ugly?" Levi asks one of the girls at a rave-style event live in an amusement park. Everything sparkles, shimmers - rides, noisy techno, blue cotton candy, Merry-go-Round. The girl looks at Levi in amazement.
"I don't know. Nobody. Like everyone else, I just made an avatar that I like. And everyone likes it. I collected these elements in the appearance catalog for a long time," she says. "But you are some weird dude. I haven't seen you before... The same people go to this event live, I know almost everyone..."
"So I'm telling you ... You're amazing. The real you," he doesn't pay attention to her slight bewilderment, usually no one allows to talk about someone's real appearance, and even in such a kind context. It is equal to savagery.
"Why are you talking about this?" she seems to be under hypnosis, she wants to get away from him, but it doesn't work, although he doesn't even hold her.
"Because you are an angel. I see it. Show me your face," Levi slightly touches her swarthy shoulder, decorated with crystals and tattoos. Her iridescent sight fixed directly on his hand. She moves a little closer, the tension builds.
"I cant. Well, you understand... I can't..." she almost whispers.
"Who said you can't? Who came up with these stupid rules?" he whispers back, running his hand down her cheek and pressing his forehead against hers. She almost melted.
"If I do this, I will lose my followers," the girl says.
"If they're not ready for this, let them go to hell, you're too beautiful for them," Levi convinces.
Her salvation is an acquaintance from the crowd who recognised her.
"What are you doing here? Let's go to the center!" he grabs her arm and pulls her into the maelstrom of other users.
Levi looks at all this with a grin, Ada sits down next to him.
"We need a top-ranked chatroom designer," she says.
"I already have someone in mind. I just don't think he's accommodating. I asked a friend to help, let's see what happens," Levi replies thoughtfully. He didn't even tell Ada about Aia. Despite the similarity of names and proximity to Levi, these girls are different, like heaven and hell. And most of all, he doesn't want them to ever collide.
"It will be hard. Not everyone will agree. I was talking to one girl here, she said that she wasn't interested in these "children's games" and she would not risk her rooms," Ada answers.
"I know, few people go for it. This is the difficulty of the task. There are a lot of designers and hosts here, and in principle it isn't difficult to persuade any of them, but those who have rating rooms and live ones are too stubborn," Levi notes.
"I can understand their choice, everything is fine with them, there are a lot of people in their chatrooms. Why would they sign up for some dubious event?" Ada says with a smile.
"So we need to come up with a new concept. Hacking chatrooms and private parties is nonsense. Only teenagers do this. We need to think about something bigger. I don't even know how to explain it to you..."
"I think I understand wha do you mean. We need to get together and discuss this." "I'll tell you about the guy I mentioned a little later," Levi says, thinking it's still important to bring Ada up to date, even without talking about Aia. "I had a couple of ideas on how to get him to agree, but I was lucky. One girl I used to play with turned out to be quite close to him," he honestly adds.
"If it will work, then great. Are you the only one sure you can trust someone outside of our group?" Ada asks doubtfully and, without waiting for his answer, says: "I will give you thoughts on this topic a little later," she gets up from the ground, heading towards the attractions, and literally disappears in the crowd.
Levi looks around for other users. Seeing that today this event live is not as active as before, he leaves the server after his friend.
Outside of the metaverse, Levi's world wasn't as sad as other users', at least because Levi lived his idea. The concepts in his head didn't allow him to sleep peacefully: he constantly wrote something in his diary, he was constantly in touch with the guys from the group, he constantly monitored the news in the world. While most people, especially young ones like him, were in a comatose state with an Elysium choker, consuming all its virtual fruits and enjoying the simulation of life, Levi acted. He avoided taking pills, read a lot, talked a lot. There was a board in his room, on which he drew diagrams with chalk, where he set small goals, transferring them to large ones with arrows. Every hour he set himself some tasks, carried them out, deep down fearing inaction. Those around him called him a fool, creating an empty fuss, but he himself didn't think so. In the world outside the Elysium, people are like zombies - tired, sleepy, lethargic, silent. Levi stood out too much among them for his activity. Every month, he and Ada went to get pills and other "necessary" medicines from the state. They were marked on the lists, because it was a duty, and then the two of them went to the rooftop and threw off these pills from there. No one knew about it.
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It was hard at first. Both thought they were dying, but held on to the last. Loss of strength, severe headaches, loss of appetite, nightmares. It was the price for such a rebellious and childishly unwise refusal of pills. Painful pallor, dark circles under the eyes, excessive thinness. The main thing, as Levi himself said, is not to get caught, otherwise there will be big problems, such as placement in a special institution and treatment with even more severe pills. And it was the hardest thing not to get caught.
Appearance began to give them out. Many would have laughed at them at that difficult moment: "stupid, why torture yourself when you can just take pills and everything will be fine?" But they survived, they managed. A month later they felt better. To be honest, the dream was restless, and there was too much energy. They went for the pills, as if on a holiday, and with the same enthusiasm threw them away, while no one was looking. Even then, they were hanging out in Elysium with might and main, improvising with avatars and other things that seemed to them as something wonderful. But they quickly played enough of such trifles. Then there were arguments on the theme of the new world, actions in the form of searching for like-minded people, mastering programming, and so on. Endless fuss and faith in something great and important.
In reality, Levi and Ada still met on the rooftop overlooking the gray city, which shimmered with neon rays at night. They saved each other with new ideas, which replaced the passive action of pills. Then others joined them. The activity didn't stop and turned into something real and feasible.
