It was a fourth day of Isla and Tricia living together under the same roof. Their time together was joyful as Isla introduced herself into Tricia’s life, as well as how Tricia brought many new things into Isla’s - late evening TV watching parties, variety in cooking, healthy lifestyle that included everyday workout and a proper diet.
While Isla spent most of her time at her work, Tricia took care of home and made sure Isla gets a healthy dinner every evening.
Yet today was a bit different.
Tricia was in her dressing room, which represented itself a small cubby with creamy lighting; It looked utmost typical for a lady like Tricia. It had two built-in drawers with sliding folding doors, contents of which varied from pristine tight dresses and gowns to long oversized t-shirts and jeans of various gradients. Most noticeable details were five mannequins standing in front of one of these drawers, each of them having their unique attire.
Three of them belonged to Tricia, displaying her past appearances with carefully ironed clothes. One of them was purposed for Isla’s police uniform, top half of which was missing. Yet between Isla’s Police uniform and Tricia’s white shirt was a completely empty mannequin; Tricia couldn't come up with her image just yet, but she had plans about what she would like to see on display.
On the farthest side of the room was Tricia’s make-up table with a big mirror hanging above it, decorated with an old-school looking set of light bulbs around its perimeter. As she was in her house’s comfort, she wore nothing but a long cyan t-shirt, accommodated by her black undergarments. Her mirror was open, revealing a small drawer with three shelves behind it.
The middle shelf had a holographic photo of retrofitted "Umbra", a Core Battleship coated with carbon fiber in some places. It was in a dry dock, with Tricia and the rest of its crew posing in front of it. Her handgun was lying on the same shelf as her photo, alongside with her dog-tags.
On the shelf above was a pair of Holo-Entertainment Headbands. Recent events made her obsessed with a fear of losing Isla because of her not being properly trained, and so she took the responsibility of preparing Isla to face the Nomads on non-physical levels.
"Hun, mind coming up?" She called for Isla, who was attending to her own business on the lower floor.
Isla had just finished recording a reply of hers which would need to be attached to a transmission she'd send later on that day. She heard Tricia's voice calling her from upstairs and smiled as she turned her PDA off, leaving it on the table at the living room and moving upstairs.
Isla was one silly lady, when she arrived upstairs she smiled lazily to Tricia. Isla's top half of her body was properly dressed, wearing the top part of her uniform with her hair all tidy, while the bottom half of her body was pretty much nude, the only piece of clothing on it being her panties.
"Yeah, I was recording!" She giggled. She was too lazy to dress up entirely in order to record a segment for some transmission, always dressing up just the top half of her body. "Is that your personal Core Battleship, honey? The one you've referred to a number of times?" She continued, hugging Tricia from behind and taking a look to where she was looking. "You all look so nice together, you're like family." Tricia averted her gaze from the Holo-Tainment Bands, looking back at the said photograph. A nostalgic smile surfaced on her face, memories of adventurous ventures into deeper Omicrons waved over her like a pleasant breeze.
"Yeah, it's her. I just like to keep a photo of it for good memories. Me and the crew, we were really close, some of them were back from my Armed Forces days."
Yet she swiftly snapped back out of her nostalgia trip, taking both of the bands and sliding the mirror over a drawer, locking it with a following faint depressurizing sizzle. She wasn't surprised by Isla's appearance, nor would she judge her for it.
"Mind placing your uniform on a mannequin? I wouldn't want it to get crumpled up." She said as she demonstrated one of the bands in her hand. "Because it's time." Noticing the bands in Tricia’s hands, Isla removed her uniform and placed it on the fifth mannequin, tidying it up and making sure it looked good. She then took a deep breath and looked back at Tricia.
"Where are we going to do this? In the bedroom?" She asked, her voice seemingly a little worried. Even though deep inside she knew that Tricia wouldn't do anything to hurt her, the thought of this training still worried her.
"Mhm. Come" Tricia nodded in response, as she exited the dressing room and headed towards their bed.
Unlike her dressing room, the bedroom looked like something out of fiction, most noticeable detail being a gigantic panorama window, demonstrating one of few pieces of Manhattan’s landscape that wasn’t touched by industry. And while the walls were whited out, the flooring in her bedroom was completely covered in black carpet, walking on which was nothing but pleasure. Conveniently, the bed she had could fit three people on it, so it was large enough for both of them.
"The Core initiates spend about six hours with these on their heads, going straight to how it would feel to be under a Nomad's influence." She commented, demonstrating the bands to Isla as they stood by the bed. "But I don't want to overload your mind, so we'll start off with something light, gradually stepping up the difficulty, just how it goes with our workouts."
She then nodded at the bed, giving Isla a sign to go in first and lie down.
"Thank you, Trishy." Isla happily said, her voice not sounding as worried as before. She took a seat on the bed, looking at Tricia. "Should I lay down or stay seated?" She asked, having no clue how the procedure would go and obviously not knowing what to expect.
"You should lie down, really, right in the middle. I want to give you some space, but our bands will be synced up." She said as she put both of the bands on the bed, near Isla, and leaned underneath the bed, taking out her cyan training rug.
"It's better for your own body to start off on something soft. I already got used to it, so this rug will do." She said as she laid out her rug between the bed and the panorama window.
"Wait.. our bands...? Synced up.? Gosh.. I really have no clue how any of this works!" Isla laid down on the center of the bed. "I'm supposed to wear these, right?" In response, Tricia took one of the bands and spread her legs around Isla’s waist, trying not to press down into her with her whole weight, even if she was relatively light.
"You'll see what I mean." She then leaned towards Isla and gently placed a band on her head, making sure that two sensors were pressing down into Isla's temples. Isla took a deep breath. The way Tricia laid down on her was actually more romantic than anything else, let alone bothering to her. Her cheeks softly blushed as she placed the band on her head. "Just relax and keep your eyes closed." She said as she pressed down the buttons on Isla's headband's sensor and weighed off of her, lying down on the floor nearby and taking on the band of her own.
Isla would feel how her hearing deafens, how her vision fades away, how her perception of the world around her vanishes. She was in complete void. Isla almost screamed for a moment as she felt everything around her vanish, suddenly her body not being supported by the bed anymore even though she wasn't falling.
But after this unpleasant moment, she suddenly felt how she was lying on the ground, tall grass surrounding her arms and legs, a gentle breeze waving over her body, warm sunlight gently caressing her face.
"Open your eyes, hun."
She opened her eyes after hearing Tricia. To her surprise, she was indeed in a field of grass watched by the sun. She turned over to look at Tricia, she was gorgeous - even more than real life. Unlike in the real world, Tricia was lying down near Isla. She was wearing a white dress and her hair was way much longer than in reality, without a tint of black in it, almost as if it was naturally white.
Isla smiled, chuckling slightly as a silly thought crossed her mind.
"I guess we're in the matrix now, huh? Will you teach me kung-fu, Tricia-sama?"
Tricia smiled.
"When you're ready, you won't have to." She replied, recognizing the pop-culture reference Isla went for.
Isla kept smiling for a few more moments, happy that Tricia got her silly but rather accurate reference.
"As pretty as all of this may look, it's not real.” Tricia said with a small note of disappointment in her voice. “It's what the headband emulates into your brain, making you see and feel things around you as if they were real. And this is how it coincides into fighting the Nomads on psychological levels." She sat up, kneeling down on the grass and turning slightly towards Isla. "The first step is to acknowledge that this is not real. Remember where you were before you ended up in this place."
Eventually, Isla’s face straightened up again as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes momentarily, thinking.
"Yep.. none of this is real. We're just lying down in your room at the moment while the bands are viewing these images to us. It's really very similar to what Nomads do to mess with you. This isn't real.." She kept repeating the last sentence a few times.
Tricia kept smiling. Seeing Isla trying her best to acknowledge her surroundings as false really brought a sense of pride to her heart.
Suddenly, the weather around them began to shift. The sun was bloated out by swiftly gathering dark clouds. A gentle breeze turned into a fast wind. Tricia’s snow white hair magically floated behind her, yet Isla wasn’t as fortunate - her own hair covered her face and lips, forcing her to shift it to the side. Intensifying wind brought some cold to Isla’s body, as she was still lying in her undergarments.
“Guess we’re about to get wet in a bad way.” She commented, giggling at the dark clouds. Tricia chuckled at Isla’s dirty remark.
"Just remember that none of it is actually happening. The cold you feel, this breeze, the upcoming rain... It's just a dream."
Periodic raindrops swiftly brought a heavy storm. Tricia felt how her dress was getting wet, how her hair dangled up on her shoulders and her back, yet she knew none of this was real.
Isla laughed for a few seconds.
"Told ya we'd get wet!" She said as she turned to look at Tricia. Normally, Isla wouldn't feel good to be just sitting there in the rain, especially not while in her undies. But the thought that none of this was actually real or actually happening helped her out.
"Yeah, I know, all of this is fake. It's a pity it is, though. Would be lovely to be laying down on an empty field with you, away from every responsibility of the real world!"
Tricia briefly laughed at this remark.
"Don't worry. We have enough time to get wet in all ways possible, and to lie down in the field." She then landed near Isla. The storm around them cleared as swiftly as it appeared.
Tricia laid down near Isla once again. A broad holographic panel surfaced above her face. She was browsing through several ambience settings with her right hand, trying to decide which would be best. Isla extended one of her arms and placed it on Tricia's cheek, caressing it softly as she was doing something on that panel in front of her.
"Would you like to see some mountains or to get closer to one of Manhattan's cities?”
"Hmm.. that's a tough choice.” Isla pondered. “I guess we're seeing Manhattan cities every day, I think some mountains would be a nice change of scenery, right?"
Tricia nodded in acknowledgement. As she picked the "Wilderness" setting, the surroundings around them changed. They were still lying on the grass, yet the scenery was different. Everything else around them slowly emerged from the ground, forming a rather romantic surrounding.
A big, dark forest stretched out to their right, with huge snowy mountains to their left. Somewhere in a distance they could hear birds chirp. A small flock of wild animals passed by them, heading towards a nearby river, completely ignoring the two ladies.
"You know.. with a few tweaks here and there this scenery would become an amazing horror setting. It already is spooky enough, though it would be even spookier if it was nighttime." Isla noted. The sudden change of the earlier beautiful scenery to this colder one gave her slight goosebumps.
"It's really beautiful, though.” Tricia commented. “Unlike the previous place we were in, this is an actual live-time broadcast from Manhattan's surface. So it's like we're there, but we're not at the same time." She said as she sat on her knees again and looked at the sky.
"This place isn't too far from my home, actually. Even though I've never been here."
Unlike a few moments ago, Tricia looked completely dry, with her hair straightened up again and stretching down towards Isla.
"It is beautiful, I agree! It just really reminds me of horror movies, being out here alone at night would be something I definitely wouldn't wanna do." Isla noticed that Tricia was completely dry as she looked at her hair, and instinctively moved one of her hands to touch her own hair. She was surprised to find out she was dry too and chuckled slightly as she noticed that for a second there she forgot they're in a simulation.
Isla got up from her laying-down position and moved towards Tricia, sitting down behind her and spreading her legs out on each of Tricia's sides. She leaned her head on Tricia's back and rested her cheek on it while she wrapped her hands around Tricia's torso, hugging her.
"Virtual hug!" She called out, giggling.
Tricia smiled, turning around without standing up.
“Not letting me hug you back? That’s unfair, hun.” She said as she wrapped her hands around Isla’s waist, holding her in her left hand.
Yet behind Isla’s back, Tricia mischievously went through settings of the virtual world around them.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them cracked and shattered. The forest began to descend into the ground, wild animals were running around in panic, Both of them could feel the air heating, as the cracks near them filled with bright orange light. Fragments of land slowly descended down, completely consumed by magma.
The pleasant scenery around them was slowly collapsing.
"Holy fu-" Isla screamed as she swallowed heavily, looking at the beautiful scenery around them collapse along with the ground. Her hands tightened around Tricia's waist as she kept hugging her with more force.
Isla was scared for a few moments, this whole thing felt very realistic considering how she could feel the heat from the heated substance.
They were floating on a small piece of land, the air around them had gotten hot. Yet the Bands would prevent them from delivering the real feeling as to not cause any real damage.
Eventually, after about a minute, Isla began to slowly calm down, her breathing becoming more controlled in time as she thought to herself that all of this was fake.
"This isn't real.. this isn't.. real.."
Tricia could hear Isla whispering to herself behind her back, near her ears.
"Got a bit relaxed there, did you?"
Something was different about Tricia this time.
"Y-.. Yeah.. I.. I did.." Isla was once again surprised by the sudden change in Tricia's voice, clothing and attitude.
Her voice sounded a bit riverbed and more high-pitched than usual.
Her hair was floating and she was no longer wearing a white dress. Instead, she was wearing a dark coat, which looked a bit torn at the sides.
Her face was covered by a cape and it couldn't be distinguished.
Yet Isla quickly was able to tell that this was part of her training. She let Tricia go after having kept her embraced for more than a minute. Tricia looked a lot scarier than what Isla was used to, but aside from the initial freak-out, she managed to keep herself mostly unaffected by that change.
She swallowed heavily, waiting to see what was next to follow as she looked around with her eyes. With its skinny pale hand, the figure in front of Isla pulled off its cape. The coat weightlessly dropped on the ground in front of Isla, dissolving into black liquid smoke, filling the scenery around Isla with itself, rendering it completely dark and hollow.
Isla's eyes widened as her breathing slowly became heavier than normal. She tried her best to remain calm, but it was very hard for her to keep as calm as she was before. She couldn't look anywhere around her as the area around was covered by a dark mist that she could not see inside of.
And then, the hot sensation disappeared.
Air around Isla became more fresh. She herself was surrounded by water, as if she was floating on it. A bright white moon shone above her, serving as the only source of light, reflecting its serene illumination in the water.
But Tricia was nowhere to be seen.
"Trish..?"
She asked silently, a feeling of terror being audible in her voice.
"Trishy..?"
She asked again, a lot louder this time.
Then it all faded into black.
The simulation turned off, gently bringing Isla back into the real world.
Her skin was wet from sweat and she was still breathing heavily as she slowly opened her eyes, her body slightly trembling. Her feelings slowly come back to her, she once again found herself in their bedroom, lying on a bed, with Tricia sitting on top of her and holding the holobands, just as before.
Tricia was her usual self, wearing as little as a long oversized cyan t-shirt and underwear, as she did before they ventured into the virtual world.
Instinctively, Isla hugged Tricia tightly, almost jumping on her as she saw her. Her eyes filled with tears as she embraced her.
"I'll probably need more training than I thought I would.." She said giggling slightly at herself, her voice cracking.
Feeling Isla’s pull, Tricia fell down, now practically lying on top of Isla. Feeling sorry for Isla and for breaking her promise of not overloading her on their first lesson, she put her hands between Isla's back and the bed.
"It's okay. We won't be doing this daily, maybe two times a week. But in the end, no Nomad will take you from me." She said as she looked Isla in the eyes, slowly reaching closer to her lips.
Isla wrapped her legs around Tricia's body as the two of them were kissing, keeping her hands behind Tricia's back and pulling down on her.
Isla's eyes eventually cleared up from all the tears.
"I love you, Trish."
"No Nomad will take you from me." Tricia's words echoed in Isla's head.
//All of the above writing is roleplay done on
Discord between @Tenshi and @Chronicron that has been
converted to a forum-appropriate format by @Chronicron
with minor structural changes here and there by me.