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</div>After waiting for months on end, it was finally launch day. Penelope Davis had suffered for eight arduous hours at the library, pleading with the clock to move faster. Most days that she worked there felt long-suffering, but this day in particular had crawled along at a snail’s pace. It was no coincidence that time dragged by particularly slowly today, because on this day, unlike most days, she actually had plans.<br/><br/>Granted, the plans were set to happen in her own apartment, isolated from society and locked onto her computer screen. But, still, they were significant plans to Penelope, plans that she could hardly wait for. Throughout the day, she found herself pleading with the clock, asking it to speed up so that she could clock out. After lunch, the countdown started. ‘Just three more hours,’ she told herself, then ‘just two more,’ and finally, ‘last hour!’<br/><br/>When it was time to clock out, the normally mousy brunette rushed to the employee area, ripped off her badge and threw it into her locker, then shoved her card into the punch clock and dashed out. As she made her exit, she did her best to avoid eye contact with her peers, as well as customers, weaving between people where necessary, in a power walk that led her outside, into the parking lot, and eventually, right to her average sedan.<br/><br/>Penelope didn’t make a habit out of speeding, but in this case, the sole of her shoe might have pushed down on the accelerator a little harder than necessary. Thankfully, no one on the road seemed to mind her speed and she probably shaved five minutes off of her total commute. After parking in her usual spot on the street, she left her car so fast that she almost forgot to cut the engine. Grabbing her purse and keys, the brunette sprinted up the sidewalk.<br/><br/>She clicked the button on her key, hearing her car horn beep loudly a second later, just as she tugged the door that led to the communal, cramped, lobby area of the apartment building. There was simply no time to check the mail and she noticed a small line of people waiting for the elevator, so she dashed to the stairs and marched up them as quickly as she could. Her cat frames bounced as she quickened her pace, until she reached the third floor.<br/><br/>“Whew!” At her own door, she paused for just a second to catch her breath, shoving her key inside the handle and forcing the door open with a bit of a shove. Her purse fell to the floor, she shoved the door closed, locked it tight, and tossed her keys into the bowl on the end table. Tossing her shoes off, she bounded for her room and headed straight to her<a class="link link--external" data-proxy-href="/proxy.php?link=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F57%2F85%2F0b%2F57850b42b78b01c7196fa2b13e3aa14b.jpg&amp;hash=72cf68190f8c2ae8e9d99b06dc4d5932" href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/57/85/0b/57850b42b78b01c7196fa2b13e3aa14b.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">computer</a>desk. The miniature office, converted from a closet, was where she spent most of her time.<br/><br/>The few friends that she had over to see her place all made comments about the renovation. Penelope was quite proud of it, but not everyone understood that by losing a closet, she actually was not sacrificing anything. In fact, there was a coat closet near the front door, which was more than enough space for the handful of dresses, skirts and blouses that she owned. In there she also kept a hanging organizer for her shoes. Penelope knew how to make the most of limited space.<br/><br/>Speaking of limited space, on her desk, she had a laptop instead of a powerful desktop computer. A PC girl all the way, her laptop was actually designed for video games. Not that she played games enough to consider herself an avid gamer or anything, but it was definitely often enough that she found it necessary to have a computer with enough space and specs to pull off some of the higher end video games. Namely, Final Armada Online.<br/><br/>The game was a virtual reality MMO experience, the first of its kind. It had the highest ratings of any game in its beta mode testing of any of the highest rated games that were released that year. The testers who were granted early access could not stop singing praises for the game. In fact, the reviews had raved so hard that Penelope decided to take the leap and pre-order it. Not being a typical gamer girl, she didn’t find pre-orders very necessary most of the time.<br/><br/>But this game had been the exception to that norm.<br/><br/>As her computer booted up, Penelope got herself out of her work clothes and into something more comfortable, opting for yoga pants and a loose fitting T-shirt. She<div class="bbImageWrapper bbImageAligned--right lazyload js-lbImage" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-single-image="1" data-src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F44%2Fe7%2Fa3%2F44e7a3dae62d1ba260a5a1c2b8832e25.jpg&amp;hash=dc82920f594e9306dfce27d0c0ed6e6c" title="44e7a3dae62d1ba260a5a1c2b8832e25.jpg">
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</div>launched the game and grabbed the virtual reality helmet, which came in the mail merely two days earlier. She had a mini freak out when she had first thought that the package was going to be delayed, because the thought of making it to launch day without the helmet was too much to bear.<br/><br/>When the game started up, she leaned over her desk to type in her login information. Then, she slid her helmet on, over her face. Suddenly, her surroundings disappeared. She clumsily pulled her chair out and sat down, getting herself acquainted to her space, or lack thereof, for a moment, before using her hands to flip through the options for creating her avatar. This part alone could take her hours, but she had a specific vision in mind and went with that.<br/><br/>Her race was human and her classification was Mage. Her avatar was created; a beautiful, curvaceous female with alabaster skin and fuchsia hair and sapphire blue eyes. Her outfit looked like a sexy pantsuit and it clung to her vivacious figure in all the right ways. She had a large spell book affixed to her by a sort of tether, which glowed like a golden lasso, attached at one end to the binding of the book and to the other end, around her waist.<br/><br/>And just like that, PennyTheMage was created. Penelope spawned into the world, which was a vast, empty field to start. She was admiring the detailed graphics of the grass blades and the distant sun making a slow descent to the horizon. When her head moved downward, that was then she realized… she was naked. She gasped, using her hands to cover herself as best as she could, before looking around for a sign of any other avatars nearby.