Feb 2018 v01 online

“Terrible pickup line,” I said, turning around.
A man grinned at me; about my age, perhaps
5”9, but with a rough, pleasant face and broad
shoulders. Blue eyes, dark hair, medium build.
I balked. It’s him!
“Go you talking though, didn’t it?” He said.
A notification popped up in the right
periphery of my vision, notifying me that this
man was a 99% match to my specified target. I
blinked twice, clearing it from my vision. I
knew.
He held out his hand.
“Hazel,” I said, recomposing myself. “Nice to
meet you,”
“I’m Dan.” Interestingly, this was true.
Another unnecessary notification dinged. My
superiors would be over the moon. I reached
out and shook his hand. Despite myself, I was
surprised to feel it in my own.
“The haptic feedback is a cool feature,” he
said, noting my surprise. “It’s been around for
a few years now. I guess people felt weird being
able to see and hear everyone, but not touch
them.” He held my hand in his for a moment
longer, before I let my fingers loose.
“It’s all new to me,” I said.
“First time with Živa?”
I felt the floor sway under me again. Trying
not to wobble, I realised the whole getup was
meant to be some kind of cruise liner ballroom.
I saw the city lights tilting softly outside. “First
time doing this anywhere. I’ve never been to a
singles night before, and certainly not at a place
like this.”
“Well, congratulations!” He put his hand on
the small of my back, manoeuvred me with
some force towards the bar. “That calls for a
drink.”
The automated bartender was a real robotic
arm with a soft plastic gripper on a sliding rail
that ran the curved length of the bar. They
couldn't use sims, because they were serving real
glasses with real fluids in them – sims were
purely sensory, and couldn't interact with the
physical world at all. They could’ve had a real
person behind the bar, I guess, but that might
defeat the purpose of visiting this kind of place.
If everything wasn’t one step removed from
reality, all those customer inhibitions might
come flooding back.
“Tell me you’ve never had an Old
Fashioned,” said Dan, rocking with the
simulated undulations of the room.
“I've never had an Old Fashioned,” I said,
truthfully. He winked, and ordered two from
the robot. It zipped a couple of times up and
down the bar, shuffling different bottles and
making a show of the muddler, and then
deposited two amber drinks in front of us on
the bar. Mine was real, Dan’s was not. From his
end, it would have looked the other way
around. Dan raised his glass, I clinked it, and
took a sip. It was sweet and strong – more
flavoursome than any cocktail I’d had before.
“It’s good!”
“Not so bad for a plain glass of water, right?”
Dan said, taking a sip. “The colour and flavour
is all augmented, like everything else in this
room. They even simulate the effect the liquor
would have on your brain.”
“Really?” I held the glass up to my eyes. The
cocktail was indistinguishable from reality, like
the expensive décor and like Dan himself. I
knew the dimensions of the place. Despite the
fact that the ceiling looked a million miles away,
if I stood on the bar I’d bang my head. Dan was
watching me, leaning one elbow on the bar. I
accidentally made eye contact, put my glass
down, and blushed. I could almost already feel
the fuzz of that simulated liquor. Using a quick