the feeling when one dives too deep
wheels within wheels, masks behind masks
what you sow is what they reap
the feeling when one dives too deep
the salty tears burn as we weep
never any shortage of tasks
the feeling when one dives too deep
wheels within wheels, masks behind masks

The broken hum of the cars outside fades as one walks into the lobby of the skyscraper that houses MVS's local office. Like all such buildings, it's huge, expensive, and artificial. The exterior walls are windows that look black from the outside, and reflective, as though the entire structure is one vast darkened mirror. The interior is kept a comfortable nineteen degrees centigrade, and the humidity level is maintained at a comfortable forty percent relative.

The layout is spare, minimalist. There's abstract art on the interior walls. Decorative plants grow in hydroponic pots. A receptionist behind the black synthetic desk smiles at you with empty eyes. When you say you're here for the beta, you're sent right up in an elevator that is controlled entirely from the desk. The walls are steel, or more accurately a synthetic that looks like steel, because on the way up it fades to glass.

You can look out over the whole damned city from that elevator as it rockets upwards.

MVS's offices start on the ninety-seventh floor. But you go up a little further, to the one hundred and first, before the elevator dings and opens. Walking out, the halls are anonymous and sterile. The fluorescent lights glare off of white tile floors and white walls. It feels almost medical in its sterility. A security guard meets you and escorts you to a room with your name emblazoned on a placard outside the door.

Within this room is a hospital bed next to a huge tangle of equipment - monitors, hissing medical equipment, and stranger things. The security guard tells you to wait, but contrary to what this implies, remains standing outside the door. It's hard to miss the gun.

OOC: Okay, everyone is in different cities, so you're not interacting directly. For all of you, though, the process goes a bit like this. So it seemed easiest to type it once rather than post separate threads for everyone, as this section is quite brief anyway.

The day just kept getting better. Or, he had to admit, at least pretending to get better. Principle of Least Effort, you didn't have an armed guard for something unless it was worth guarding. Unless you just wanted to make it seem worth guarding, but there wasn't exactly a lot of foot traffic or media exposure here, and he was going to see the guarded tech soon anyway. That sounded like "actually worth guarding" to him. He also appreciated the touch of floor 101- VR 101, like an introductory class. It was the kind of thing he could see the planners doing.

Mostly, he was just excited because he'd never been to something like this. Betas, sure- half the VR games that launched did so as an extended public beta for liability protection against bugs. But never "come in to a medical room, we're going to hook you up to new tech" beta. The NDA had been an absolute beast of a legal document, and even when he was finished, he planned to bask in the smug secret knowledge all the way until release. He'd also quietly bought some shares in the company, nothing large enough to get looked into for amateur insider trading. Seeing the facilities, the guard outside- it seemed like that had been a good move.

Coming in to a corporate site for a Beta event struck Alvin as being a little unusual given that he should have most of the hardware required already. Entering the lobby, Alvin's eyes aren't drawn to the art or receptionist, but rather toward the lobby's ventilation. It was a hazard of his profession. Working mostly on blueprints and with CAD models, he didn't get the chance to evaluate these systems in person very often. As a result, he'd developed the habit of checking out the ventillation of most office buildings and other industrial facilities he found himself in.

The ride up was pleasant enough, as hundred-floor elevator rides go. Alvin paused momentarily before exiting. The guard that met him at the elevator was a little unexpected, the sterility of the facility more-so. He found himself listening closely for humming sounds, trying to evaluate whether there was a server farm on or near this floor. It or its cooling systems might be audible. He had a hard time imagining what reason beyond the need for computing power he might have been summoned to such a facility for.

The placard with his name elicits a raised eyebrow. It implied he might be here more than he had anticipated. Hopefully he could talk whatever admin he spoke to into letting him do further sessions at home.

Seeing inside the room caused him to re-evaluate that impulse again. He frowned as the guard told him to wait and stepped outside. This seemed like it might be more than he'd been expecting.

Alessandra hated this. She tended to be resentful to authority at the best of times, not so much because she had to be in charge herself as all the stupid pettifogging rules and regulations they insisted on. At least half of it was just to show everyone what a big dick they had to force everyone to do things their way; there was no real reason she couldn't have used her home rig for this, and have her own supplies and snacks on-hand. They'd even asked her what her home rig was when she'd registered for the beta. Why ask if it hadn't been to check her specs?

Despite the grumbling she wasn't wholly immune to the excitement; she stalked into the MVS building in trim black leggings and boots, with a maroon hoodie on over her t-shirt. She returned the receptionist's meaningless smile with a bland one of her own, then rode up the glittering elevator as she looked out on the neon city night.

Up in the cold sterile corridor, she walked down to the room with her name on the door like a good little cog, and when the security guard took her in she took a seat on the edge of the bed... and waited. Looking at the man outside her door. Looking at the medical equipment and stranger things, she began to have a sense of forboding about this whole thing. Why was all this necessary? This had better be the best beta test ever... but she wasn't sure she would come back. There were other games out there after all.

The day was finally here and while Adrian did his best to appear outwardly calm and collected he couldn't help but grip the upholstery as if he was trying to wring water out of it and a cold sweat had broken out across his brow. When the auto stopped outside of the obelisk-like MVS headquarters he nearly vomited on the polished walkway.

Making his way into the building he only processed how cold it was, at least to him. He only came back to himself when he entered a room with a hospital bed and...guards? Wait why were there guards here? Suddenly his nervous transmuted into genuine concern and confusion. Reflexively he grew back towards the door, unsure if he'd somehow wandered into an the world's most upscale chop house. Vat grown organs were possible but at a high premium; or so he had been told.