Alice wasn’t the target demographic for virtual reality. She was well-adjusted, popular at school, and preferred real life, physical spaces. The thought of meeting strangers in virtual reality and not knowing if their avatar was an accurate representation of themselves was scary to her. In short, she was scared of catfishers and pedophiles.

She took the leap when she heard one of her favorite musicians was going to hold a virtual concert. She’d been following him for a while, even before he grew popular. His lyrics and musicality spoke to her. They helped her process her teenage emotions.

Unlike most users her avatar looked exactly like her. She was cute, long brown hair, a head shorter than most girls her age, and of mixed Filipino descent. She dressed well, preferring comfy, but stylish clothes. She preferred lighter makeup, but loved colored lipsticks/balms with vibrant colors that matched her emotions. She wore a bright red color that day. Naively, she also used her real name for her avatar. She’d used VR systems before having done the new virtual escape room experience with her friends online, but this was the first time being in a virtual space with a stranger.

The concert was meant to be a large gathering, but she bought a premium ticket that allowed her to customize her virtual concert space. The virtual concert technology allowed instances of the musician performing to be streamed in parallel to an infinite number of custom spaces. She chose an aquarium. It was a circular room surrounded 360 by a glass aquarium exhibit. She also disallowed other people to join; during the performance It was like having a personal concert with her favorite musician.

Her heart fluttered and it was amazing being able to listen to the acoustic guitar and singing like he was in the same room, singing just for her. The way the light filtered through the aquarium water and flickered and played across all the empty space in the room and on the guitar made her feel some kind of way.

Her ticket also gave her a few minutes for a meet and greet after the concert. She waited there patiently for her turn. Suddenly, an announcement was made on the aquarium intercom speakers.

“Bing, Bong, Bing…thank you for patiently waiting, the musical performer will visit you soon and should appear in about one minute. Once again, we thank you for purchasing a premium concert ticket experience with VMC technologies. We hope you…”

She couldn’t hear the rest of the announcement as she retreated internally. It was fine when it was a one-way experience, but she got nervous at the thought of actually meeting him. She considered disconnecting from VR from anxiety, but she had an important question she wanted to ask him.

Virtual polygons started to manifest themselves in front of her. He was loading in. She instinctively started to fix her hair and pat any folds from her clothes down not realizing that in virtual reality your appearance is always perfect, queen.

He finished loading in, and both Alice and Brad awkwardly stood in front of each other not knowing what to say.

“Close your mouth, you’re gawking at the girl,” Sonder whispered into Brad’s ear. “Also, fan service! Repeat after me…”

Brad robotically parroted what Sonder spoke into his ear, “thank you...for, um, coming to the show. I’m always excited...to see...my loving fans - yea.”

Alice giggled at that awkward introduction. It helped ease her tension and remind her that the person standing in front of her was probably just as nervous.

“Thank you...too..um I really enjoyed the show and you sounded great. My name’s Alice by the way.”

“I KNOW.”

Red audio warning signs flashed on Brad’s HUD.

“Oh sorry, I meant, I..I know it tells me who bought the ticket, and stuff.”

Sonder was an AI, but for some reason it was able to cringe; it pondered if it had reached singularity at that moment. “Please make small talk Brad,” it whispered in his ear.

Brad looked at his surroundings for the first time since loading. “Oh, thank you.”

“For, what?” Alice asked.

“For choosing the aquarium setting, it’s my favorite actually. I love the calm feeling aquariums give. People used to choose it a lot when VMC put it in, but ever since they put it in bedroom mode that’s all I get these days.”

“There’s a bedroom mode?” Alice asked while giggling.

“Yea…” Brad awkwardly replied. Yellow eye indicators flashed, he focused on Alice’s eyes to make eye contact. His stomach started to churn. She looked pretty as the fickle light danced on her face. He started getting lost in Alice’s hazel eyes. Red eye indicators flashed. Too much eye contact. The word ‘creepy’ flashed briefly.

“Oh my god, you know this girl. You like her. Who is she?” Sonder asked.

“NOBODY” Brad yelled into the air.

“I’m sorry?” Alice asked.

“Oh sorry, it was..uh...my parents, yea.”

“Oh, ok. Do you live with them?”

“Yea, I’m still in high school actually.”

Alice was shocked to hear that he was still in high school. She knew he was young, but his music felt a little bit older.

“Hey, I have a question I wanted to ask. In the lyrics to your song ‘Joyous’ you wrote that a world without music is a world without joy. Is it because music is your passion?”

“Let me...let me think,” Brad mumbled as he walked toward the aquarium glass. He focused hard on the question and closed his eyes. After some time he responded, “...emotion.”

“Emotion?” both Sonder and Alice asked.

Brad turned around and looked earnestly at Alice, “to me, music is not my passion. It’s something...it’s something I do to feel emotion. I’ve...never been great at processing my feelings. They feel like big blobs of mass: heavy and all-consuming. Like...spaghetti maybe? My emotions are like spaghetti, I can’t untangle them, but with music...things sound clear..er.”

Alice was confused at the explanation. She’s heard all her life to find her passion and has had an impossible time finding it. She assumed Brad was truly passionate about music and it felt like he was the only person she knew that was able to find it at a young age.

“So, music isn’t your passion?”

“No.”

“Does music make you happy?”

“No...music doesn’t MAKE me happy. It is happiness and sadness...and anger...and all emotions.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Music...is how I process emotions. I don’t know the shape of happiness, but I know what it sounds like. I have this playlist. When I don’t know what I’m feeling inside I like to listen to all the songs until I find the one that my emotions sound like. That’s why music is precious to me.”

Alice was shocked. It finally made sense to her why his songs made her feel something. He wasn’t writing songs to play them. He played music to feel, he was writing pure emotions.

“I think...you’re awesome, “ Alice said to Brad blushing.

“Give her your contact information. The VMC space is about to end,” Sonder whispered.

Brad pursed his lips tightly to keep back a big smile.

“I wish we had more time. I really enjoyed talking with you, but I guess you have stuff to do, huh?” Alice asked.

“Now’s your chance Brad, give her your contact info.”

“OH, HEY, UMMM...yea I mean I enjoyed the time too. Thanks. Again. Umm, can I get your phone number or I can give you mine too.”

Alice lit up at this. “Yes, of course.”

They exchanged contact information and somehow Brad, with Sonder’s help, was able to bumble his way through it. They even agreed to meet again virtually. When they disconnected Brad looked at the numbers on his phone screen. A big feeling washed over him and crawled up his spine onto his face. They made him feel happy, but he didn’t know it was happiness until he listened to his playlist and heard ‘Here Comes The Sun,’ by the Beatles.