Penelope got lost in her thoughts as Jason enveloped his arms around her, creating a sort of protective shield that cocooned her in his warmth. Even though she wasn’t being hugged by his actual, real life body, she still felt the heat that resonated off of him and wrapped her up snugly, as if he were really there, embracing her. With such a realistic virtual interaction, it might be easy for some people to confuse this world with the real one.<br/><br/>Initially, he brought up something she hadn’t expected to hear. He was adamant about how she was just as beautiful as her avatar, and firmly told her to stop putting herself down. She gulped audibly, catching a glimpse of his gaze just before his lips captured her temple. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that…” she trailed off, sounding sheepish. To his promise about proving it to her, Penelope felt her cheeks flush noticeably. She gawked at his lewd words, then released a scoff.<br/><br/>“Well, that would certainly prove something.” She declared, her brows raising at that final word.<br/><br/>Jason moved back a step to look at her and talked about the possibility of their VR helmets reading brainwaves and downloading thoughts. She shook her head slowly, her heart sinking all over again. “Man… If I had any idea what all would be involved with this VR shit… I don’t think I ever would have taken the chance, or wasted the money.” At least Jason didn’t seem opposed to at least searching for some sort of way to connect back to the outside world again.<br/><br/>“That would be… amazing.” She sighed, trying to keep herself from thinking too much about what it would be like for her family to find her, withered into nothingness, seated at her computer chair. Jason inquired about friends of hers who may have wanted to check out the game as well and she thought for a moment, sighing aloud. “I have one friend who said she’d probably try it out because her boyfriend got the early release, too.” She shrugged, not sure how promising a lead that would be.<br/><br/>Penelope pulled up her menu and poked around for a bit, searching for anything that may have been hidden in there to help her disconnect from the game or at least check in on herself in real life. She dug through the account tab and the settings tab, scrolling and scanning all the way down the menu options to be sure she was looking through every possibility. “Don’t most games have a code or a button you can press to just… force exit?” She inquired, wondering if there was something else she was missing.