Meg vaguely recalled seeing an eggplant in the fridge while she was fussing with its contents earlier. A fried eggplant sandwich could work, right? She turned on her heel to open the fridge, and nearly jumped a foot in the air.
âShit! she cursed softly, brushing a few strands of hair out of her face. âHow long have you been there?â
âHAH! Sorry! Sorry. I uh, JUST, walked in. Sorry, didnât mean to scare you. Maybe. Probably. Hi! Youâre⊠Cooking?â
Tannis whispered the words, shoulders coming up to their ears as they laughed and winced in equal measure.
They tilted their head a bit, waving a hand as they inexplicably kept talking. Whispering. Whatever. âSoooo⊠Are you up because of nightmares too? Or because you couldnât sleep and your form of late night/early morning therapy is cookingâŠ?â
âIâm always up this early,â Meg replied, turning back toward the fridge. Her hand lingered on top of the door, not yet opening it. She looked back at Tannis over her shoulder. âWas anyone here vegetarian, orâŠ? You can take one of those by the way.â Meg gestured vaguely at the plate on the counter.
Tannis blinked a few times, letting their shoulders drop before shrugging. âNâeh? I dunno. I donât thhhhink anyone is? Thanks, by the way. Iâm Tannis! Nice to meetcha, early mornin âalways awake this hourâ pal!â
They darted a hand out, taking up a sandwich with a bit too much eagerness. Good food sounded divine after the nightmare.
âRight, weâve⊠met. Last night. Banana bread. Remember?â Meg chuckled softly, taking her hand off the refrigerator door. If none of them were vegetarian, she didnât need to worry about making anything else.
Another shrug, before half the sandwich vanished down a ravenous maw from which no meal ever would escape.
âOkay fair, but also, Iâm EXTREMELY discombobulated right now, so! Memory isnât exactly the best?â
âFair enough,â Meg agreed, pulling out a chair and sitting down. âCoffee might help, if youâre the type to drink it,â she added, gesturing vaguely at the untouched pot.
âDo you know how long this project thing is supposed to go for?â Meg asked, changing the subject. The question had occurred to her a while ago, though she hadnât thought to voice it yet. She didnât really know a lot about what it entailed, and though she had her own assumptions, she thought it might be worth gauging the thoughts of her fellow participants.
Tannis took a moment to think, consider all their options. On the one hand⊠Coffee meant no sleep until twelve the next day. And forgetting to take important medsâŠ
On the other handâŠ
They spoke as they moved, taking their phone out of the dirty basketball shorts they snatched in a rush, and made themselves a cup of coffee.
And shoved the rest of the sandwich into their maw.
âWell⊠Yeah nah. No clue; probably a while? Maybe the whole semester or⊠like⊠Five? I didnât really look,â They paused for breath, âEscaping my horrid past lest it consume me wholesale; devouring my soul from the horrors of it all!â
They finished with a flourish, holding the coffee mug away from themself with one hand, bowing and tapping their chest with the other.
The fake Victorian voice was so fun.
Ah, so Tannis didnât know either. Hm. Meg was a little disappointed, but not really surprised. If she was right in her assumptions, they could be here anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months, depending on whether the project leads wanted to hold them over for multiple testing periods. She yawned, a light crack sounding on one side of her jaw, then rubbed her eyes.
âThatâs great, then,â she muttered, tapping one nail on the table in thought. âI donât suppose you know much else about it?â
âNope!â They popped their âPâ, leaning hard against the counter as the coffee got sip-sip-sipped away. âI know that technically the AI we got will follow us when we go jumping into worlds not our own, and I know that we technically donât HAVE to stay, I think, itâs just preferred we did.â
They waved a hand, like swatting away flies. ââM pretty sure you could just ask yours and he, or she, or it, or they, could tell ya!â
Meg blinked at Tannis in wide-eyed bemusement. color=#2c64ef]â...AI?â[/color] What AI? Meg racked her brain, trying to recall if sheâd heard anything about this. It probably had something to do with the phone the project had sent, but Meg had only ever turned it on once.
Although, now that she thought of it, she had been prompted to name something when sheâd turned it on to check if it worked. So the AI was like their user interface, then? Now that she was considering it, Meg supposed prompting users to name an AI guide instead of themself could be a good idea if you wanted to encourage an emotional bond with your gameâs core NPC. If she understood the concept correctly, the AI would be the only recurring character by design.
âSo the AI only disseminates tutorial information when prompted with verbal questions?â she mused quietly to herself. If the goal was to make communication with it feel natural and not overload the user with too much information at once, she supposed she could understand the logic of that design choice. Hm.
âUhhhâŠ???â Tannis questioned, tilting their head as they went through the motions of making another cup of coffee. âYeah and nah. They also have, yâknow, personalities. Theyâre basically sapient! Itâs pretty insane! Numinar is great though, heâs super helpfulâ Oh! Whatâdâyou name yours? Have yâall talked much?â
They had turned by now, holding out the cup of coffee to Meg. It was black, though they did have creamer and sugar packets in their other hand. Tannis gave her a smile. âOh⊠Also if Iâm talking too much, jusâ lemme know, anâ Iâll shut the hell up!â
âNo, no, youâre fine,â Meg assured, waving away the proffered cup. âAnd I named it uh.â She thought quickly. âPol. And we talk all the time, yeah.â So there was a social element to the AI as well? What was it supposed to be, a tamagotchi? Did it have feeding mechanics or something? It felt like Yonder Wonder was pulling this mobile game of theirs in too many directions.
âSo, any plans for the day?â Meg asked with a sigh, changing the subject for the second time.
Tannis stretched, thinking quietly before shrugging! They rolled their shoulders, glancing around the kitchen some before looking back to Meg.
âNah. Not really. Probably gonna go for a run or something, grab some gifts for the dorm if I have the money? I dunno. Something!â
They gave her a smile. âAnd you? Gonna stay up for the rest of the day? I can get you something while Iâm out!â
âNo, I donât need anything. I think.â Meg stretched in turn, glancing through the kitchen doorway. It didnât seem like anyone else was up yet, so she should have time to get some stuff done around the dorm uninterrupted. âIâve got a few other things to get done, I think. Iâll see what comes up.â
She settled back in her chair, not really thinking of anything for the moment, just taking in the view of the kitchen and Tannis inhaling coffee faster than was probably safe. She exhaled slowly through her nose, enjoying the silence while she had it.
âOh,â she spoke up suddenly, something occurring to her. âTea. They only have that Lipton crap here. Hold on, I think I have some money in myâŠâ Meg groped her arm awkwardly behind her, trying to find the right pocket in her coat without getting up and looking. After a prolonged period of failure, she finally gave up and just pulled the article of clothing into her lap before retrieving her wallet.
âHere,â she said, offering Tannis a folded twenty. âLoose leaf green tea and a box of Earl Grey should be fine. We only need the staples.â