The train wailed in the distance. Tim shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and hunched down to keep his neck warm. Smokelike breath-vapor trailed from his lips, as he trudged across the college campus, back to his dorm. The wind picked up a bit. Tim felt his teeth clench tighter as his jaw began to ache.

The warmth of the lobby burned his ears. He signed the clipboard and showed his ID, climbed three flights, and fished his key from his jacket. His roommate, Buck, was gone Grateful, but not surprised, Tim slung his jacket onto the bed and snapped on the desklamp, leaving the rest of the room dark. He slid into his chair and pressed the “On” button on his computer.

As the screen flickered through the boot-up sequence, Tim licked his lips and cracked his knuckles. First, he’d check email. After firing off a few responses, he’d load IRC and ICQ and AIM, cruise the typical channels and rooms, and see who was online. As he made some small talk and saw who was doing what where, he’d surf the posts. If nothing was going on on DALnet or Undernet, he’d fire up Telnet and cruise the FurryMUCK and maybe a couple of Anime MUSHes. Surely, someone would be online.

Buck had gotten him into the whole online culture a few years back. In fact, that was how they’d met, back during high school. They’d both been using the same pseudo-Internet service provider, and had talked and joked in a couple of channels related to roleplaying games and fantasy novels. They were both from in-state, and when the time came for Tim to start school, he and Buck soon realized they would be at the same college. Buck had been an undergraduate for about 3 years already, and showed few signs of actually declaring a major any time soon. Tim had met him in person for the first time when he came to campus for a visit, and they’d gotten along well. The next fall they were roommates, and had been ever since.

ICQ and AIM were dead. DAL was equally boring, though he did talk to a few of the regulars about nothing in particular. The one guy who always quoted anime made a few jokes that were pretty clever, and the really needy girl did her best to veil her blatant attempts to convince him to have cybersex with her. Tim made his farewells and headed to Undernet. The evening seemed like it might be a wash. He was just looking for something compelling, and interesting person who could help him tell a story, take part in a little textual virtual reality, help him flex his mind some, since the stories weren’t coming to him on his own.

He’d started playing games online for lots of reasons. He wanted to write, and it was good and constant practice. His words per minute rate was through the roof, now, as well. But he’d also used the ‘Net to make friends. High school and the friends he had there were ok, but he’d found it much easier to talk to people and confide in them online. College had given him more opportunities to actually meet real people face to face (or f2f, as the jargon ran), but he’d kept his contacts online, and when he needed something familiar or consoling, the chat gang gave him comfort. In the meantime, he’d honed his improvisational writing. Now, the challenge was finding someone else to write with who was actually interesting and a capable writer.

On Undernet, he joined a few typical channels, dealing with vampires, werewolves, dragons, dungeons, and so forth. In one of the more heavily goth-wannabe channels, #BloodySatin, he just lurked, reading the stories unfolding on the screen. A line of red text interrupted the black of the room—“Barbed” had sent him a private message.

-->haven’t seen you here before

Tim was surprised to see the message, but smiled. He typed the /query command and wrote back.

-->not a regular. just lurk sometimes. you play or just hang out?