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"In the winter of 2016, the online update of Sweven had just uploaded to the server, and nothing was the same since," Teresa, standing over the sink in their communal kitchen, was listening to Star doing a dramatic read from across the room. She pressed her palms onto the counter, lifting her body up and taking a seat.
Teresa took a bite of an apple, watching her skim an old newspaper. Star was wearing a black, fitted suit covered from neck to toe; it had forcefield armor technology.
"Palestinian-Egyptian gamedesigner and neuroscientist of consciousness, Teresa Avraham, was the first to develop an online software that was able to cross wire one's mind to an online server, thus creating the world renowned VR game known as Sweven. Jeez, they worshiped you like you were a god or something."
"I was," she recalled, unfocusing her eyes and staring at the wooden floor of their treehouse.
Star slid down from her dangling chair, swinging from the pull-up bar, "You okay, Tess?"
Teresa nodded a little too quickly, "Yeah, I um ... "
"You sure?" Star jumped down to the floor, taking Teresa's apple from her hand and taking a bite, "'Cause you look a lil' funny."
Teresa tied her hair up into a ponytail, brushing back the strands with her fingernails, "Your body's with Gabriel.
Star took another bite, strategically keeping her face still, "And you know this how?"
The sound of wood rapidly tapping against each other clicked until Teresa saw a young man step out of man-made elevator and onto the floor of the treehouse. He was wearing a suit similar to Star's. "Yo, there's some fuckshit goin' on at the Rabbit. People are goin' bonkers — I brought sambusas, y'all want some? They're Ethiopian."
Star turned around, grabbing the greasy paper bag he was offering, "What type of 'fuckshit'?"
"What's a sambusa?" Teresa inquired.
"Like a samosa," he shoved a lentil fried dough into his mouth. "Fuckin' Roma, of all people, with his loud ass mouth drew attention to the diadem like it's public knowledge and shit."
Teresa slid off the counter, "What?"
"You've gotta be kidding me," Star commented.
He shook his head, "Afraid not."
"How do you know this?" Teresa asked.
He rid his lips of crumbs, "I was there getting my portal gun recharged. Alister was was tryna have me spend fourteen-seas on the joint. Like that's gonna happen, no, thank you."
"Gerald," Star caught their attention. "Please tell me you've been working on your code switching."
He scoffed, leaning against the kitchen table, "I'm not an idiot."
