"Let's test this out." Jon began probing in the new areas of his mind that were now open to him. "Where's my personal workspace... Aha!" A screen full of computer graphics suddenly appeared before Jon, projected on a blank area of his bedroom wall. "Here we go... Icons for web, email, chat, school, games... cool... and you're not seeing my screen, are you, Karyn?"
Karyn already had her own 'window' up and was opening folders to see how it was all organized. "Nope. It's 'Virtual Reality', projected right into your mind."
Jon quickly found the area devoted to VR controls. "Hmm... Ah, there's something called a "default VR view" which I control in this room, and I think you're already plugged into it, and all I have to do is share it... and poof, can you see my work window now?"
Karyn saw a new window superimposed over the one she was using. "Yes! Oh that's weird, it's right there in the same blank wall space I was using... and all I have to do is think hard about it and I can switch between the two windows, either seeing yours or mine. Cool. Now can you see my shared workspace?"
"Oh, I see what you mean, I've got the same private/public view thing happening too. Takes a bit to get used to... kind of like mixed images when you cross your eyes... sort of, not really."
Jon let his gaze wander around the room, and saw something else. "Woah, all my posters... They're not real paper like they are back 'Home'. In this reality, they're virtual, in that 'default VR view' of my room... and poof, I can turn them off."
Karyn started when the room's walls were suddenly cleared of posters. "Okaaay... and that leaves us a lot more whitespace to work with... and I see I could have just cleared them myself, selectively blocking out parts of the default VR space in my own personal view."
Jon looked at Karyn. "Oh, that's interesting; you've got your own personal VR space 'aura' around you that you control, and I was just following it as my default view of you... What happens if I turn it off... And there she is, the real Karyn who never wears makeup."
Karyn frowned. "What, my makeup is really fake VR makeup?" She looked back over in the mirror. "I still see it."
"I 'denied' your default view for just myself," Jon explained. "I can't control your view of it like I do of this room."
Karyn poked around more in her own VR folders and found the area devoted to her cosmetics. "Let me see.. ok, there's the 'button'. So that's why I can't feel it. It's all VR special effects. That's why there isn't any makeup or remover in my purse. Heh, this feels more like me now. Makes sense I'd do the makeup when it's absolutely zero effort!"
"And you don't give a fig if others might peek beyond your default 'veil'," Jon observed.
"You got that right. I wonder if every girl does it that way in this reality." She looked at her hands. "The nail polish is real, though. I wonder if there's a 'Nail Genie' that makes it easier here."
Karyn experimented further. "Ok, there's my own view, and the default view... Re-accept my default view, and tell me if you see my makeup again?"
Jon nodded confirmation. "I see it."
"And I don't right now. Ok, we got the basics of that, I guess." Karyn found something else in the folder. "Oh, that's cute.... here, accept my view of the entire room."
Jon did, and looked around. "OK, the only extra thing I see is your personal data window on the wall. There's a lot to learn about those; I see you have to be really careful about what you put in those windows before you share them, if you want to keep your private data private."
Karyn giggled at him. "Look in the mirror, bright-eyes."
Jon turned around and saw himself in the mirror... dressed as a clown. Whiteface makeup, multicolored wig, purple jacket, big green shoes. "Oh! Hahaha. Cute."
"Isn't it? I've got a whole directory chock full of stuff like that. I can overlay anything in my own personal VR view."
Jon reset his view, and even though he was expecting it, was quite relieved to see his normal self back in the mirror.
Jon said, "Ok, well, we could fool around with these views all day, but we've got a clock ticking."
"Verrry slowly, thanks to the ARDs," Karyn reminded him.
"True."
It wasn't strictly necessary; advanced users could pull up a window anywhere in their field of vision and easily deal with the mental gymnastics, but it was much simpler for beginners to project the windows on blank surfaces. Now that she had the extra blank wallspace, Karyn shoved her private and shared workspace windows a little ways out from Jon's shared window, and arranged them so she could see all three easly without the mental juggling. She opened her 'chat' folder, and found an hours' worth of queued IMs from many people. Some names were familiar, others not so much. She noted a recent series from Sheila Winters, each flagged with higher and higher priority levels, most saying things like "Hello Karyn, I know you're there with Jon; answer me please!" Most of the rest had flags that pretty much meant "answer me whenever."
*Karyn Reid to Jon Winters:* "Hey, are you getting this IM?"
*Jon Winters to Karyn Reid:* "Five by five. That was easy."
*Karyn to Jon:* "Good. This takes care of our promise to your mother."
Jon reverted to speech. "So that just leaves the biggie... What's this 'prank' all about. It might be somewhere in our email or chatlogs--"
Karyn interrupted him. "Found it."
"What?"
Karyn said, "Way ahead of you. There's a really easy search tool on our 'desktops'. Here's the first prank chatlog, from two weeks ago. Check it out." She shoved a file over into the workspace she had shared with Jon, and opened it so they both could read it together.
