There were a few other dormmates hanging around, Gabriel turning each time he heard footsteps to see who it was, their gatekeepers, and any other details no matter how trivial that would hint what he and his friends had signed up for.
"I presume you are also in the project, then? And that you two are friends?" Overhearing a mention, he turned back to Alice and Leland. Simply put, "Yeah." Gabriel replied monotonously as if he'd been asked this question many times before. When the friendship began? He couldn't really pinpoint but Leland was one of the few people who could sell him the idea of isekai-ing. Had anyone else attempted, he'd have thought it a bad scam. "We lived in the same dorm before this one." He knocked on the wall. "He recommended an upgrade." He half-joked, massaging his neck that had gone stiff.
Reflecting on what he had seen, Leland's AI was a dog, and his AI was in the middle of customizing... "Alice, where's Ram?" He recalled the name she had given them and hoped her device wasn't malfunctioning.
"Tadaaa~!" The gatekeeper twirled, the smoke clearing and revealing a curvaceous young woman with dark hair tied back in tight ponytails, eyes of hypnotic swirls, pointy ears, and cheeks of neon yellow splatter. She licked her lips slowly as if savoring the taste of her grape purple lipstick, resting a hand in the arch of her side. Her dress hugged her body tightly, too tightly that one would wonder if a human could even breathe in it.
Dragonfly wings attached to her back emerged to finish off her look, an identical match to the pin that contained her prior that hummed and flitted to life, bringing her closer to another A.I, the first of several she would meet. She patted the new friend's furry head. "Hello, you!" She giggled, the music fading away. The gray pooch was the cutest with its wet nose, tongue out and tail wagging. "Our owners are friends so I'll definitely be your friend! But wait..." She didn't know the criteria for friendship.
Lexa observed the trio, hovering around them until she settled behind Gabriel. Her fingers crawled along his shoulder waiting for an opportune moment to interrupt the conversation. "What do friends actually do?" she asked him with the curiosity of a child. Gabriel looked over his shoulder, Lexa's eyes widening and refusing to blink. He thought about it but he wasn't sure how to string the words together, put on the spot in front of his own friends. "Google it."