Once again, credit to FirstDragon for his advice.

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Plat awoke to his alarm as it beeped loudly beside his head. Yawning, he stretched his arms over his head brought the left arm down on the alarm, mumbling incoherently. Pulling his covers back, he swept his legs out of his bed and got up, walking to the plain wall parallel to his bed.

He stroked his chin as he inspected the wall. He swiped his right hand over it, the wall changing as he did so. The previously plain wall glowed as a screen came online. The news of the day flowed across the screen, the silhouette of a person reading it as it passed from right to left. He muted noise, scratching his back as he read the temperature and weather for the day.

Nodding to himself, he pressed his left hand against the wall. This time, the top part of the wall became transparent, letting in the light of a new day on him. Smiling, Plat bent down and did his daily stretches, feeling the muscles strain and bend as he pushed and pulled his body. He groaned whilst doing a leg pull, the muscle fatigue from yesterday’s beating was still present in his bones. After 30 minutes, he walked over to his bathroom and turned on the shower.

Unlike the nicer sonic showers, his shower was old fashioned water, which he found pleasantly warm today. His water system ran recycled waste water from the kitchens, so the temperature sometimes varied depending on the day. He shivered at the touch of cold, than relaxed as it slowly warmed up. He reached over for his ultimo-soap and began washing himself sudsy, whistling all the while.

After drying himself off, he donned his work uniform over his protective skin suit and left his dorm room. Knowing the sounds sometimes echoed through the floor, Plat took care to not make too much sound as he walked back the entrance hallway and up the stairs to the garden. As the sunlight hit his body, his uniform was revealed to the world better than the artificial lights downstairs.

He wore a short-sleeve purple three-button shirt that held an emblem of a flying spaceship on the upper left part of his chest, with a pair of dark slacks that led down to a pair of black and purple tennis shoes. On his head, he wore a black and purple baseball cap that held the same emblem as his shirt.

With a skip in his step, Plat headed toward his work place. Working was an important part of his life after all: after turning 13, students were required to get a part time job that fit with their schedules in order to expose them to the real world and real jobs. The best places to work actually sent out invitations to the top scorers in each strength category: from interning at a construction site to working in a research lab. For most students, however, they had to submit their application for a part time job to the companies directly.

Plat had been pretty lucky in his own opinion, because he had submitted only one request to a single company, and they had accepted him on the spot. Rather, they were desperate enough to hire him immediately.

Plat worked at the video game department at the game-torium, the number one hot spot for kids to play games and hang out with their friends. Even though it was a lot of fun, few applied to work there because they didn’t see a future there. Most kids would end up working for the places they worked at, or at least in a related field.

Plat loved it though. Because he was a non-specialist, he felt that working in a place full of fun and enjoyment would be a great place to work at, especially since he didn’t have too many prospects. It also helped that he often had access to new games before the majority of kids due to his working privilege.

The game-torium was actually a large building located on the west side of campus. It stood by itself with five departments within: Arcade games, Video games, Cafeteria, Bouquet, and Holo-deck. To do things in the game-torium, one had to have P. points.

P. points, otherwise known as Participation Points, were electronic points acquired through the accomplishment of tasks. Going to class earned P. points for example, also having a job or setting a record, or inventing something. P. points could only be given by adults and could be taken away by the disciplinary committee or teachers. However, P. points could be traded at the P. store at the front of campus. Both parties inserted their keycard and listed what they were trading for. The machine transferred the points, and the trade was complete. D.C. members were always on the lookout for unfair trades, as they earned P. points by enforcing the rules.

Arcade games held the mother lode of stationary games, both retro and modern. Some tech-archeologists had uncovered the remnants of the major game companies before the war and had reconstructed every game they could get their hands on. From Pac-man to Dragon-age, the department was filled with machines that played every game that had been known to man, and the MD remakes (Modern Design).

The Cafeteria was a series of large kiosks and a buffet line where students could but food with P. points. Besides the cooking classes held there, it served as the unofficial meeting place for most students during lunch and dinner. The kiosks rotated every day, so variety was always found.

The Bouquet was the large shopping part of the game-torium that held all the fashions the students could look at and buy from. Only uniforms were provided by the academy, any other clothing had to be purchased here, with P. points. It held 3 sections divided by age group, and separated by gender. A long standing tradition for graduating teens was to try to sneak into the store and steal something from the girl’s side. Of course, they rarely ever made it past the door. Their strung up bodies would then be found the next day with free water guns available for use on them.

The Holo-deck was the brain child of all three factions. Not only did it provide an intense gaming experience, it also provided training in situations that would normally be considered dangerous. From war simulations to diffusing a bomb, from history lessons to astronomy, Holo technology was considered the future of learning. The Holo-deck in the game-torium could be used to place oneself in a game or simulation and act along with the characters. The games were pre-selected weeks in advance and listed on the large screen outside the entrance. To participate in one, a student had to sign up in advance and reserve his/her spot. A keycard was only allowed to register one spot per game, so some kids reserved a spot just to sell to other kids for P. points. The most popular simulation games were War of the worlds, Space tag, and Risk: Real View.

Lastly, the Video Game department held the smallest part of the game-torium. It was off it the corner, a basic shop that played on the style of the video game stores from before the war. It normally had a low attendance rate, but spiked higher than the other departments when new games came out. The most popular genre was VR, Virtual Reality. Still relatively new to the world, VR had proven in the few games out that it would redefine gaming for future generations. Different from the Holo technology, VR allowed one’s mind to enter the game, rather than use their body in the simulation. Both had their ups and downs, but kids were excited about the new worlds to visit. The first major VR game was scheduled to be sold that very day, so as Plat walked toward the store, he could already see kids camping out in front.

Plat smiled to himself, he didn’t need to wait because he had made sure to reserve a copy for himself ahead of time thanks to his working privileges. Granted, he had to work the rest of the day, but the game world was actual set to not let anyone in until later that night, when the majority of kids would have the opportunity to play without being left behind. He was excited, and his hands trembled as he entered the shop.

Behind the table, a figure lay propped up with his legs on the table. A newspaper lay on the figure’s face, and faint snoring sound could be heard emanating from underneath. Plat rolled his eyes and marched up to sleeping character. Reaching down, he shook the figure a couple of times.

“Oy old man, this is not the time to be sleeping!”

“Zzzzz….snort……grumble grumble……zzzzz”

Narrowing his eyes, Plat aimed his foot carefully at the chair and let lose. As his foot hit the chair, the figure vanished before his eyes and the chair rolled over a few times. Puzzled for a moment, Plat’s eye located the hologram emitter on the desk and turned it off. As he did so, the real person appeared on the center of the floor with a blanket and a pillow.

Yawning, the figure stood up and glanced at the chair with a wry grin.

“Heh heh, nice, I got it to fool even you Plat.”

Scowling at the figure, Plat folded his arms in front of him and waited for an answer from his boss.

Known as the Game-man, Keith McLandal ran the Video game store in the game-torium. Known for lazy and quirky personality, he played a large role in the lack of applicants to work in the store. While great when needing information on games and discussing lore and theories, he was notorious for throwing work on students and coming up with creative ways to avoid work. He was responsible on release days, but only in front of customers. Most times, he could be found snoozing somewhere in the store or in the backroom. As no one had ever seen him leave the store, it was rumored that he had a secret underground house in the facility. Plat had never seen any proof of that however.

Keith walked over and picked up the Holo-projector.

“This here beaut’s the newest in Holo technology, almost feels like I’m right there with ya.” He said gleefully looking down at his new toy.

Plat sighed. His boss was weird, but he did know his games.

“So boss, we ready for the new game sales yet?”

Keith’s face turned serious and nodded, “We received enough copies to sell to 75% of the student population in the two upper age groups. If needed, I can get more to cover an additional 10% by tomorrow. Anyone else who can’t get a copy will have to wait till next week.”

He grinned at Plat, “Speaking of, your copy is all set and ready for you in the backroom with your name on it. You have the VR machine set up in your dorm room?”

Plat nodded, he had managed to get the large pod down to the basement a week ago, thanks to the help of some of his basement worker friends. They had wished him luck when they were done, rubbing his head like he was a puppy. He grimaced at the memory.

“Good deal then. Well, now that I’ve ‘ad my fun, let’s get those customers a show they won’t forget!”

Smiling, Plat went behind the counter and turned on the machine. Whirling to life, the automated robot scanner team rose up from the corners and took their places at the entrance to the store. Clicking another button, Plat activated the emergency game exit, only used when crowds of people entered the store; it gave the customers who had their game an easy exit without pushing their way back through the crowd.

For game release days, the system was quite efficient. Students entered in 5 lines, had their keycard quickly scanned by the robots, walked into the store to browse, picked up their game copy from the automated distribution nodes, and left via the exit.

Of course, every once and awhile things didn’t quite work out, so Plat mentally prepared himself for the onslaught of incoming students. Checking to make sure that Keith was still with him, Plat took a deep breath and opened the store doors. A wave of excited students poured into the store, quickly bypassing the robots and making a mad rush to the game distributors.

Struggling to get through, Plat vainly tried to make his way to Keith so they could work together to calm the masses. Unfortunately, the Keith that had been visible was the Holo-projector again. With a cry of “Keith!” Plat was quickly buried in the avalanche of students as they continued their quest for Everlife.