"Hey, I'm bac...why is there a severed cartoon horse head on the counter?", RJ asked as he entered his apartment.
"Commission", the gruff voice of his roommate replied. He lifted up his hand to reveal an intricate connection of wires to several rings on his hand. Wiggling his hand a little, he made the horse head, blink, wink and smile in a series of quick movements.
"Ah".
RJ, like many of his generation, did not achieve the "American Dream" of having a house in the suburbs with a wife, two kids and a dog.
Instead, he lived in a studio apartment in a city with three other roommates. Luckily, this particular one had four bedrooms, so there weren't any awkward cohabitation moments.
Enter Sergei, a two meter tall Russian man who was built like a viking grizzly bear, had a bachelor's in mechanical engineering and made a living making custom fursuits and cosplays.
Sergei was RJ's college roommate turned apartment roommate shortly after the two had graduated. Back in their school days, Sergei was originally a taciturn student who didn't really do much until he joined the local anime club. He ended up taking a shining to cosplay and used his mechanics know-how to make elaborate cosplays.
Eventually, this lead to him learning about the furry community and the absurd amount of money they're willing to drop for a good fursuit. About a year, several dozen books dedicated to the art of costume making and three conventions later, Sergei had established his name as a well-known fursuit maker.
While RJ's other two roommates initially found this weird, they quickly stopped giving a shit when Sergei presented three months worth of rent in a week.
"MLP"?
"Bravestarr".
"Damn that's old...well, I'll be in room. Later", RJ said as he made his way back to his room.
"Later".
"Ha det", Tatterhood said as she followed RJ into his room. Sergei mumbled another good-bye before catching himself and pausing from his work to stare at RJ's door.
"...did RJ bring home a girl?", Sergei pondered for a second before getting back to his work, "whatever".
_________________________________________
"So this is your domicile, huh? Feels cozy", Tatterhood commented as she surveyed the contents of RJ's room. It was a fairly standard set-up: a bed, a nightstand, a computer desk with chair and a shelf filled with anime figures.
"Oh? Are these anime figures? So scandalous"!
"Why do you-nope. Not gonna look into that. Make yourself at home, while I check out what those rewards were", RJ declared as he took a seat at the computer chair while checking the app.
"D'awww. Don't you want to sit next to me on this nice, soft bed?", Tatterhood teased with a smile as she took a seat onto RJ's bed.
"... You're doing this on purpose aren't you"?
"Ja".
"Okay, switching to the app now", RJ declared as she opened up the game and looked at the [Inbox].
{Congratulations, you have reached level two and have gained access to the [Compendium], [Spirit Garden], [Crafting], and [Equipment]}.
{Congratulations for completing the mission. The following have been added to your inventory}.
{Reward Packagex1}
{Ember of Gula x1}
{Would you like to claim your rewards?}
With a shrug, RJ accepted the prompt. A moment later, the prompt screen was replaced with a short animation showing a little treasure shaking a bit before opening.
{Robe of the Fire Rat x1 Received}
{Fire Demon Core (Inferior) x1 Received}
{Fire Attribute Beast Egg x1 Received}
{Samsara Hotpot Cauldron x1 Received}
{ Spirit Gold Coins x 100000 Received}
{Random Huoshu Skill Scroll x1}
"Wait...is this a Skill Scroll for a Huoshu or something I can learn from a Huoshu?", RJ thought aloud as he skimmed through the reward list.
"Oooh, nice haul".
"Gah! How do you keep sneaking up on me?", RJ asked as he stopped his surprised heart.
"You're incredibly dense", Tatterhood replied in a blunt manner.
"I...why does it feel like that had a double meaning"?
"Who knows~ Anyways, you should open up the [Spirit Garden] now. I'm bored and I think your other two companions are bored with floating in empty space", Tatterhood said while flopping back onto the bed.
"Oh? Uh, sure", RJ replied before activating the [Spirit Garden] feature...well attempted to. After clicking on the feature, the game prompted him the following message.
[Insufficient hardware, please connect phone to the nearest desktop or laptop].