Effervescent ||Tsu'tey||

Bodybuilders

Her hair was still wet, Alva thought with dismay as she sulked by the windows. Though the parts not weighed down by water were frizzy and stubbornly refused to take to the curls Alva tended to manipulate them into with a healthy dollop of various products.

In the adjoined room the trained staff had gradually weaned the new Avatars off the fluids they had grown in before placing them on two hospital-sized beds to await Jake and Norm's arrival. Jake's Avatar's foot twitched just a second before Alva heard the slight screech of his left wheel when he turned.

"Morning!" She chirped. "Sleep well?"

The bitter stench of cigarette smoke lingered on Grace's shirt, a fresh one squeezed between two fingers. Her glasses hung from a stained breast pocket, fresh fingerprints over the glass suggested that despite Grace's lateness she had spent an unhealthy amount of hours pouring over her reports.

"It's too early for your good mood." She grumbled. "Help Jake into link four, I'll take Norm."

"Sure." Alva said and turned from the window. Jake waited for her by the raised platform, wheels edging towards the ramp leading down to the link units. "How was your first night's sleep?"

"Can't complain." He said. "I've had worse conditions," Jake smiled.

Intrigued, she pressed. "What's the worst? My grandpa once had to sleep in a pile of elephant dung to protect one of the last wild herds from poachers. Said he couldn't get the smell out of his braids for months."

A sharp bark of a laugh tore through him at that, as unexpected to him as it was to hers but she had always been fast to smile, and he followed her lead. It was the first smile without the oppressive weight of sorrow weighing the corners of his thin mouth down, wrinkles at the corners of his eyes making him seem so much younger than he was.

"Your grandfather was a brave man," he said after a moment of silence, "but it wasn't anything as exciting as that."

"Alright. Keep your secrets." She grinned. A life with her crafty, warrior grandfather and paranoid mother had taught her the signs of when to not press an already wounded and cornered animal. Instead, she pulled half a bar of chocolate from the pocket of her dress. "Want some? It's you-know-who's."

Jake eyed the dark treat but shook his head. Alva shrugged and took a healthy bite of it. "Suit yourself," she told him. "Grace has claimed link number three for you. She's a real champ, that one. Did you know I hold the record for most hours logged?"

"No."

"Well, I do and don't trust anyone who says differently." She said as she led him down the steep ramp and down to his link unit. "Do you need any help getting in?"

Top lip nestled between sharp teeth, Jake's dark eyes swept over the machine before shaking his head. "Nah," he said. "I've got this."

"'Course you do," Alva chuckled, a slender finger poking his bicep. "Look at those arms."

Alva pulled the upper clamshell lid up along with the netting of biometric sensors, revealing the warm gel-fluid packs which held the rough outline of the average human body. Jake rolled himself in backwards, accepting Alva's offered help to fit himself between the humming machine and the plethora of equipment raised around it.

"How many hours have you logged?" She asked once he sat comfortable snug against the side of the machine.

"Like an hour, but I read a manual once."

"Really?" She gasped. "This is only your second time then? How exciting!"

"Yeah, between the funeral and shipping out there wasn't much time for fine-tuning," he quipped.