New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

A ways away from Montreal, inside a small apartment in Le Panier, Marseille, two pods were opening.

Out of one of them came a svelte woman, who seemed taller than your average woman, and whose slender neck assuredly made a few men turn their heads.

Out of the other, a hunk of a man stood up, stretching his muscly body around, before stepping out.

These two people were Jaxx and Jeanne d'Arc.

The woman, looking at her brother, shook her head a bit.

"You're stupid ego almost cost us our chance at being part of the biggest guild in New Eden, Gaspard. When will you learn? Are the supplements you are taking finally clogging up your brain?"

Gaspard turned his head, looking at his sister with a pitiful look.

"I'm sorry Jeanine. I was only trying to make the best impression I could… I didn't think things through…"

Jeanine looked at her brother's regretful face and sighed loudly.

"It's fine. Forget it. Astaroth seems to want to give you another chance. Let's make the most out of it."

Gaspard meekly nodded.

Stepping out of her own pod, Jeanine stretched her slender body before taking five steps forward and opening their fridge. The appliance was close to barren, with only orange juice and a jar of pickles in the back of it, along with leftover soup in a Tupperware container.

The soup was from their mother, who often made them some food to bring back, since their financial situation was less than ideal, ever since they bought these 'Stupid Space shuttles' as her mother called them. But they both intended to make their situation better through New Eden.

Jeanine turned her head toward her brother.

"Want to get some shawarma around the corner? I'm starving," she asked, holding her stomach.

Gaspard looked at her strangely.

"Shawarma for breakfast? Why don't we go to that nice crepe place down by the pier? A breakfast seems more appropriate."

Jeanine remembered it was morning and giggled.

"You're right. A crepe sounds good as well."

They washed up quickly in their tiny washroom, almost stepping over each other's feet as they fought over ownership of the sink while brushing their teeth. Then they put on fresh clothes and left the apartment, heading to the pier.

***

A little farther to the northeast, in Nokia, Finland, a stout young man in his early twenties exited a gaming pod of his own. He looked outside the window, seeing the sun low in the sky, and roughly growled.

"Skeida, it's already morning. My boss will chew my head off…"

This young man, with a head of unkempt hair and patchy scruff of a beard, was Meat-Shield. On his table, letters from notaries, with large printed logos on them, littered.

The name on these letters read as Edvin Virtanen.

Edvin hurriedly washed his face in his kitchen sink, sending some water in his hair before roughly brushing it with a comb, and then he jumped into a dirty-looking overall with the logo of a blue garbage bag. Rushing out of his small home, with little to no yard, Edvin jumped on his scooter before driving to work.

He cursed all the way there, berating himself for staying up so long after everyone went to bed in New Eden. He had been looking stuff up on the forums and lost track of time.

Because of this, he was an hour late to work.

As he drove into the garbage triage plant, his boss was waiting by the door.

"Hanttapuli! You are late again! If I didn't need to replace you, I would fire you right here, right now!"

Edvin took the berating with his head down, cursing in his head.

'Just wait until I make it big in New Eden, you kääkkä. I won't ever have to work for you again.'

After getting berated and yelled at for five minutes, taking it quietly, only opening his mouth to apologize, Edvin darted inside, where he headed to his post at the triage machine.

His colleague and friend, Mikael, fist-bumped him as he ran by.

"Stayed too long on your game, again?" he asked, a smirk on his lips.

Edvin huffed.

"When you play it, you will understand, Mikael. New Eden is like a new life, away from all this paska. It's an amazing new world. So much better than here."

Mikael shook his head with a chortle.

"Yes, yes. You've told me a million times. I don't have the money to buy one of those expensive capsules you play in, Edvin. I told you already."

"Buy a helmet! I can pay it for you, Mikael. I have some money from New Eden. You could play with me. Join this awesome guild I just joined!"

Mikael smacked him on the arm, to signal him the boss was coming, and both of them turned to the machine, falling silent.

The boss passed behind them, eyeing them like the garbage they were sorting, before leaving for his office.

"You will get us in trouble with all your game talk, Edvin. We can discuss this over lunch. For now, just work. I covered for your quota while you were absent this morning, but I would also like to relax."

Edvin spat on the ground, looking toward the boss' office with a glare.

"When I make it big in New Eden, I won't have to come work in this cesspool of a job. You could make it big with me and then we could buy ourselves a big house and live the big life."

His daydreaming almost made him let by a piece of garbage that needed to be set aside, and Mikael needed to reach over the conveyor belt to grab it.

"Stop daydreaming, Edvin. We'll talk about this at lunch."

Over the speakers, the boss' voice barked.

"Edvin! You lazy bum! Stop talking and get working before I fire you!"

Edvin cursed under his breath, looking at one camera and smiling. He then focused on his work, before his boss finally put his threats to execution.

Even if he knew he would make it big in New Eden someday, for now, he needed this job to pay his bills. But that didn't stop him from daydreaming a bit, making Mikael's job slightly more complicated.