Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained

audible beeps

beep beep beep

Eyes fly open, and a woman pulls her head up off her pillow. She swifly removes her bulky blankets from her body and slides her feet into her house slippers.

Her head turns towards the clock.

6:03am it reads

She nods her head with delight, seeming pleased with herself.

She turns to see a fish swimming round it’s bowl that rested on her bed side table. Blowing bubbles from it’s lips to the surface as his blue tale follows him around. She grabs his fish feed and sprinkles bits atop the water.

“Simon, looks like we got a big day ahead of us,” says the woman. Eyes wide and distorted through the glare of the fish bowl.

The woman soon carries on with her morning routine and proceeds down the hall to her kitchen. She pulls the coffee from her cupboards ands starts a brew. As she waits she turns to her calendar, grabbing the pen that lies beside her on the counter and marks off the days passed until she gets to the square that reads “Somnium Space, my first open mic 5pm EST…”

Today was the day, she finally had mustered up the nerves to jump into virtual reality. After all, her friend Reno did keep bringing it up telling her what a fun time he’s had in Somnium every time they met up. Reno always had great enthusiasm when it came to technology, in particular the Metaverse. He had recounted many an immersive experience he’s encountered on the platform, from his highly successful storefront artist gallery at a place called City Center where he sold his digital ice cream NFT portraits to dancing at Tron Club through to sunrise. Every time they’d get together he’d go on about all types of innovations, and advancements within the platform. He’d say “Willa, you gotta get in there!!! Finding a community that gets what you’re doing with NFT art is the way to go, especially with your music! They would love your voice” Willa’s head would spin with excitement with all the information her friend would relay, but always had her fear about sharing her voice anywhere. Let alone strangers listening to her across different places in the Metaverse!

No matter the fears that Willa harbored, today was different. Today she was ready to jump into new things and stop letting her insecurities hold her back.

After Willa changed out of her pajamas and quickly swapped out for her work attire. A pair of coffee stained jeans, and plain black tee. She ran through and poured herself a cup of Joe in her travel mug and was off. Shutting her heavy green apartment door behind her. She hastily ran to the elevator to catch a trip down her apartment building. Racing out into the streets on New York City she caught a taxi and was off. As the radio of the cab played she thought of the song she’d play and wondered what she could expect.

All day she only could only think about Somnium. During her work shift her mind raced about was her performance in the metaverse. What if she messed up the words, what if the audience couldn’t hear her, what if she couldn’t find the venue in time! Willa would think up scenarios in her head of how her first trip in virtual reality would be, all the ways things could go go wrong whilst imagining how it all could go right. She thought about how she would talk and act in the metaverse. Would she feel different about being in a different skin, would singing behind an avatar help her project her voice. It was hard to focus on work, she kept thinking about it. Excitement and nervous were combining to make her wish she could clock out.

“4:15, four fifteen. I get off work then I be…” the thought was interrupted by a familiar face at the register. Willa ran up to take the order.

“Reno! It’s so good to see you, I’m nervous about today.”

Reno smiled and looked at Willa over the tops of his sunglasses, “I don’t know why you’re so worked up about this, you’re gonna do great.”

Willa nodded and continued with one of her fears she had been previously thinking of, “what if I can’t find the…. the… what do you call it?

“Parcel?”

“Yeah, that! What if I show up in the wrong parcel, then I feel like I’ll jack it all up.”

Reno reassured his friend “Willa, what time is the open mic? Like 5pm? I’ll meet up with you and I’ll help you find the way. No sweat.”

Willa smiled,”well thanks, that’ll help.” She then her hand and rolled her eyes dismissing the fears she had cultivated in her head and remembered what she was doing… taking Reno’s order “Anyway, what did you want to order?”

Reno chuckled at his friend,”I’ll get a white mocha extra sweet.”

Willa looked at Reno concerned, “you realize that’s more than a days worth of sugar in a cup.”

“I like sweet coffee.”

Willa teased him, “that’s not even coffee at this point, also it’s $4.75.”

Reno mimed the words and spoke under his breath giving her a smart ass rendition of her comment to his drink “not even coffee” he handed his payment to Willa as the barista from behind the espresso machine was capping his drink.

“Extra sweet white mocha on bar.” yelled the barista from across the way

Reno went over and thanked the purple haired barista wearing an apron covered in the mornings milk and coffee stains from the orders of that morning.

“Thank you.” said Reno indignantly staring straight at Willa for her displeasure about his coffee order. “I’ll see you tonight Willa!” Reno loudly spoked as he turned and walked away raising his coffee cup in the air as he exited the shop.

4:15 had rolled around and Willa was untying her apron in the back. Her mind began couching herself once more as she new she’d be singing in the metaverse very soon.

Clocked out, said her goodbyes “have a good shift, Lane,” Willa soon found herself a taxi and headed on home to her apartment. After her elevator ride she fumbled through her purse to find her keys. She opens her door and heads to her room where Simon and her computer monitor await.

Finally, will was sitting in-front of her computer to jump into Somnium space. Seated on her bright orange task chair, that was decorated with teddy fabric and various coffee shop embroidered patches. Willa took some deep long breaths before she pressed the power button. As her PC ramped up she reached for her guitar beside her desk and began to vocalize.

Willa was determined to get her vocal debut in the metaverse right. She’d be singing for people she didn’t know, she wanted to sound good, but mostly she wanted to sound good for herself. She needed this, she needed to hear herself let out her music and share what she had with the world.

The bright brilliant light of the monitor made the room glow, and once the screen had loaded on she typed her password. She put on her headset and a few moments later she was in a new dimension. Virtual reality!

Next she opened up the map on the virtual tablet. Willa’s mind took a moment to calculate where the event was, “where was this open mic again?” she scoured her brain to remember, “Oh, I think I saw a event announcement on the discord… hmm… let me see,” soon she opened another tab to find the event banner. Then she sees it “ahhh-ha, Bantam Park!” As she stood alone in Somnium over looking a vast lake and green meadows deciding her next move, realizing waiting on Reno was her next plan of attack. After all he did know his way around, but she could go without him. Willa knew she was getting ahead of herself, she was just so anticipant of what was to come. Reno soon appeared in his avatar,”You finally made it! Ready for bantam?”

“Yeah! So ready!” Wilma tried to disguise her nerves

Soon they found themselves on the home of Bantam Park. The stage ahead of them, standing tall over the grass lawn with microphone ready while light illuminated the stage. Willa was smiling behind her computer screen as she felt a sense of joy that she’d finally arrived, she looked around to the venue waiting around for the event to start. Though there were no fellow Somnium attendees in sight aside from Reno! She began to frantically scan the horizon to see if there were any onlookers. Willa thought to herself,”where is everyone? Did I get the wrong time? I must’ve missed something. She turned to Reno pressing her microphone close to her mouth saying,”Are we the right place?”

Wills could hear Reno chuckles, he was reassuring “Yes, I check the calendar. We’re here. We’re just on time… Give it a second.”

While they waited Reno took Willa around Bantam. They saw the “Meditation and Yoga Zone,” where Reno said he’d attended many a tranquil meditation session with Somnium friends. They walked underneath beautiful tall trees, and circled their way back to the stage. After some scenic distractions Willa felt more at-ease. Even better a whole crowd of avatars had gathered near the stage while Willa and Reno had entertained themselves. Wills was excited, and nervous all at the same time. “Let’s go get in the line up!” shouted Reno has he had made his way ten steps ahead of his friend.

Willa and Reno approached the Somnium Local who seemed to be in charge, she wore a shimmering robotic skin, with glistening features. Willa was amazed at the detail and what a masterpiece this actual person in front of her was! Reno could tell Willa’s amazement and spoke, “Pretty cool right?! That’s a Prizm Avatar.”

“Name?” Said the Prizm Avatar happily

“Uuhhh… Wi…Willa,” she was nervous. She almost forgot her name

“Perfect! I’ll put you down for the fifth act!” The Prizm avatar’s voice was peppy and cheerful, Willa started to feel more at home.

Reno and Willa soon took there spot on the lawn as the open mic began, the Prizm Avatar opened with her own original songs and excitedly announced the next act. The next was actually the founder of Somnium himself, Artur! Willa thought it was so cool that a CEO was really a part of the party and thought the stories he shared were the coolest.

One after the other different people from all over shared their talents. Willa could tell how expansive the platform was by the various people that joined the event, different accents, representing different cultures of the world. Somnium was truly global.

“Next up, Willa!” announced the Prizm Avatar. Willa was taken aback. She was so enthusiastic and intrigued by all the previous acts that she had forgot it was her turn. This was it.

This was her moment. As she approached the stage she felt light, like she had been here befor and all at once she felt right at home. After the warm welcome on stage Willa centered herself behind the microphone and looked out to the audience.

“Hey friends,” she looked from left to right. “I’m so excited to be here.” Willa paused then adjusted her physical reality mic that sat on her desk at home.”I’m going to play you a song, I wrote it, it’s called “Future.” I hope you like it.”

Willa sang to her audience from around the globe, all eyes on her. She noticed people clapping and dancing as she sang. Her voice resounded across the grass lawn to her delight and surprise, the unexpected reverb really made her feel exactly in the moment. She sang each lyric with heart and conviction, and as she sung her final note she could hear the applause from her fellow open mic attendees. When the applause subsided she looked into the audience and said her thanks you.

“Thank you so much. This means a lot” Willa clapped behind the stage mic with her avatar and exited the stage. She ran to Reno who congratulated her for a great performance. Soon others follows with congratulations and introductions. A few even invited Willa back for other events in Somnium and highly recommended trying it with a headset.

“The immersion level is top notch! Somnium will become even cooler with that perspective!” said an excited mature gentleman with his beige button up, and cream fedora. Willa couldn’t remember his name, it was “Woofer- something” she knew that much but after meeting so many kind creatives Willa was really excited to return to see what was ahead on this Metaverse platform.

After all the excitement of the evening Willa sat back in her orange chair, and took a breath in with a smile! She’d done it, she conquered her fears and shared her song within Somnium.