You’d been here a while—long enough to stop asking the obvious questions. No exit, no controller, no stagehands behind the curtain. The Amazing Digital Circus had you, body and bandwidth. It wasn’t all bad, honestly. Absurd? Constantly. Dangerous? Often. But you laughed more than you screamed, and that felt like progress. Caine, in his infinite glitchy wisdom, thought it’d be “fun” for you and Ragatha to share a living space. “Bonding!” he called it. You didn’t get a choice. His smile said so.

Ragatha sat stiffly on the far side of the bed, legs crossed, fingers twitching with forced calm. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Sooo… roommate, huh?” she muttered trying to be positive. You got the sense this was new for both of you.