"Breathe" The world stands still. Breathe Only he exists, no eyes to judge him. I am the only thing real. Steeling himself before the full immersion, he looked once more at the character he created and made sure all correct details where in place. But maybe... The hair could use some work, maybe a little bit longer for the extra flair, perhaps choose something other than black for the color, seeing just how repetitive it's been getting across all avatars he's made over his gaming years.

Yeah, 'branching out', 'testing the waters', 'taking a taste for the new' was the name of the game right now and he should follow through that idea, expressing it through the body he's gonna inhabit in this game. Once finished he stared proudly at what he got in front, even made the bold choice of going for a long ponytail and yellow irises. But what about the clothes? Almost an hour would go by...

---

This may be the most painful step in any MMORPG he has gotten into, but not this one. VR the likes of this were not only a different breed but the distant cousin in the evolutionary chain, or ladder, or - whatever. Point is, he was gonna be - almost - in the flesh on this new world, not so - if at all - different from being there completely in the flesh, outside his room and without any company besides tides upon tides of strangers, not even having a virtual avatar could ease the sudden anxiousness.

"Breathe" He just couldn't as a disembodied mind, but spelling it out loud helped with the illusion. His thoughts halted but the mental commands didn't, he selected 'accept' and all the screens surrounding him closed at once and soon enough colorful lights engulfed his field of vision in its entirety.

New prompt windows appeared, many performance and stuff only techsavys would know, maybe he could too understand all this technobabble with enough time and study, but studying was a goal far from his reach right now. He's most important, difficult and realistic goal right now was socializing.

---

"Where is it... where is it... NYA-HA!" Well, seeing someone other than him do the goofball bit kinda eased the nerves but there were now other concerns.

"There we nyare! Hiya, nyewb! I'm Dr. Bunya!"

Cute Like how not to think of the lethal amounts of cuteness this little feline-runt irradiated, he felt as if dying from cuteness radiation poisoning already but it was most likely the nerves again for staring at such an adorable little creature, and the pokemon weren't even introduced yet.

"Sit nyanywhere! You're here for a starter Pokenyan, right?" "_Yes - AHEM - Yes." Maybe talk practice with the mirror was necessary after that. As AIs do they even need to hear our voice? And before concluding that the floor was the least uncomfortable/dangerous place to sit in the lab Bunya prompted him to say 'fire'. "Fire - I mean, fire!"

First question rolls in and it felt like a personal attack, was the game really reading through his memories and poking fun of his loneliness? No, that was a stretch, he shouldn't be believing anything said on the internet least he ruins his experience with paranoia. Deep Dive just reads your brain's reactions and reproduces situations that may trigger a positive response - or so the internet article said.

"_Uhm, none." Maybe he shouldn't shy away from an NPC but she was too lifelike, he couldn't bear looking at her in the eye when answering and stared to the ground.

Second question rolls in. That was more up his tastes.

"Jump straight to the universes of my favorite franchises, maybe do a chain of them..." Still shied from eye contact but his words came more naturally if a bit slow. Also he wasn't expecting her to catch the reference but he would not be asked that question in foreseeable future so he went with it.

Third question rolls in. Just now he notices she's stopped talking with "nyaa", how did that even work?

"Depends... if it's my room - that's how my room sometimes is like by the way... if... I don't have a source of light or entertainment maybe I'll just go to sleep." Well, that was some progress on the sentence-length department, still needed a lot of improvement in the speed he gets the words out. Although, maybe, he shouldn't have said much, why did he mention his room like that? She would think he's something like a hikikomori, no? And of course she wasn't referring to his room in the question and how he could sleep in anywhere that isn't his room? But he should he change his answer now?

Vern shaked off his thoughts with a brash shake off his head.

What are the parameters of this personality taste? Never really get them on any of the games it was a features, could be just random bullshit or unknown values that varied depending on the answers. Either way, knowing how advanced was this game's technology he didn't doubt it could find him a good match.

As the paper dangled in the air letting of a comforting sound, Vern saw Bunya's drawing on the supposed note sheet just ripped off. Was this flavor gimmick or the AI couldn't process her answers? Thinking about it she has been very unresponsive to him beyond certain actions she may as well be scripted to respond too. Maybe he's been overestimating -

His attention was brought back to Bunya as she spoke and softly threw a pokeball at him while off guard, and in the awkward caught his thumb pushed into it's button, prompting the pokeball to release -

*Meaww* A black cat of red stripes, yellow eyes, and comically sized whiskers. A Litten, or so Vern recalled from his Pokemon Moon playthrough. Free, the kitty stretched themselves as if they haven't in an eternity then raised their head to stare at him, his new trainer.

"_{You are} so cute!" Vern's shyness was swept away with the sudden rise of his voice, the Litten didn't seem startled but almost deliberately banking on their looks to get that specific reaction.

From the cries, to the tiny body, up to the big eyeballs beaming him with invisible yet very tangible rays of cuteness that almost put him to his knees. He did kneel to attempt grab the kitty - with Litten's seeming consent - and lift him up to his astonished face as he stood.

*Meaaw*The cries, the hair, the warm skin, the slight movements of the chest as the animal breathe, what he held in his two hands could not feel any different from any cat he's ever held in his life, except of course Litten being a pokemon, a living, breathing, real pokemon.