I ran through the lower 2 floors to get to the surface, checking my map to navigate to Dante's place, Building 4. I found the building where he is assigned. It's a condominium style building with six different units attached to it labeled A to F. Dante's profile said he lives in unit B. I approach the door of unit B and knock rapidly. As much as I want to, I don't shout for him to answer as that will sound more alarming to his neighbors.

  Suddenly, a tall horse woman opens the door. She's looking down at me with annoyance radiating from her face. I feel like a small child who just broke an old woman's window playing baseball across the street from her.

  "And why the hell are you knocking like that?" the woman asks me in an angry tone.

  Stuttering, I ask her, "He- hey there. Look, I'm sorry for knocking like that, but I'm a little worried about my friend, Dante. My phone told me he lives here, so do you by chance know if he's here?"

  The woman leans down towards me, glaring into my soul and says, "Did you even try calling him?"

  Frozen by fear, all I can do is open my mouth without saying anything after realizing that she is right. There was a call button on his profile that I just completely ignored, as well as an IM button.

  The woman sighs, "If you're talking about the fox who just got here today, he was in his room a minute ago. I didn't really get a chance to talk to him. He spawned into his room and left the last and only time I saw him. I tried to talk to him but he seemed too down in the dumps to say anything back. Next time I see him, I'll tell him you stopped by but please try calling him before you bang on my door like that."

  I nod before she closes her door on me. Based on what she told me, I can assume that what Jonas told me is true and that Dante is alive. Either he left to try and jump again or he's just wandering around somewhere. I check around the corner of the building behind me which is closest to the north edge to see if Dante is anywhere near the edge, but I don't see him over there. I pulled up his profile on my phone to call him. The call rings a few times before it disconnects, telling me that he did not pick up. I debate on whether I should try again, but I'm sure he's okay. After all, no one can actually get hurt here it seems.

  I remember Jonas telling me our home was towards the south end of the tower. As I make my way south, I look up Jonas in the directory to find there's only one Jonas, Jonas Lief. His profile has a custom photo of him versus the newbie mugshot Dante and I have. It says he lives in Building 18, unit E. I press the call button on his profile. The call rings once before he picks up.

  "Hey there, lightning. Everything okay?" Jonas asks me over the phone.

  "Yeah, I just went to go check on that fox who jumped from the edge a while ago." I tell Jonas.

  "Oh cool. I'm guessing he's okay." he presumes.

  "Well his roommate let me know he's doing fine. Didn't get to talk to him, sadly." I told him.

  "Oh well. He will be fine, Adrian. No one gets hurt here. Hey I'm starting to get a little hungry. How about I pick up some pizza and we can celebrate your arrival at our place?" Jonas asks me.

  "Yeah that does sound nice." I replied.

  "Sweet. Oh yeah, I never told you where our place is. We're on the south end in Building 18, unit E. It will show up as your home on your map." he tells me now.

  "Yeah I uh, already saw that on your profile." I chuckle, "I'll meet you over there in a bit. Will I need a key to get in?"

  Jonas replies, "Nah, your watch is your key."

  Looking at my watch, "Oh cool, I'll see you in a bit then."

  "See ya." Jonas hangs up.

  I walk across the top of the tower towards my new home. Taking in the aesthetics of Stratosylum. There are plenty of trees that surround the buildings. There's a little river surrounded by flowers and bushes that flows through the courtyard outside Building A. I walk over the river on a beautiful stone path that pokes out of the river in close enough proximity for me to walk on top of it without getting wet. The architecture of the buildings intrigues me, they each have a different vibe, if you will, but you can tell they were all designed by the same architect. To believe this was all built on top of a tower that no one on Earth could build is amazing.

  I hate that the beauty of this place is getting to me, making me want to stay, but I have to stay strong. I have to remember that there is a goal here, a goal to restore everyone's freedom in the outside world. My own included.

  I finally made it to Building 18. Unit E is the second door on the right. I approach the door, noting the doorknob with a proximity reader-like apparatus. I place the watch on my left wrist near the reader on the doorknob which then makes a gentle chime, indicating the door is unlocked. With my left paw already in reach, I grab the doorknob to twist it open. Pushing the door open, I walk into a warmly lit condominium, greeted by a hallway with a staircase going up on my left and a kitchen on my right. I peek into the kitchen briefly, admiring how new and well kept everything looks. Jonas must take really good care of the place.

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  "Howdy stranger!" I suddenly hear from behind me.

  Surprised by their presence, I lightly screamed, "OH JESUS!"

  I turn around to see a raccoon casually leaning on the wall right behind me. He has a short dark tuft on his head and wears a dark button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

  "You must be our new roommate." the raccoon says, softly grinning at me before scanning me toe to head with his eyes. "Jonas sure took his sweet time getting you here. He didn't tell me you're such a pretty kitty."

  Who the fuck is this? Is this Jonas' boyfriend or something? Why is he flirting with me?

  "I'm sorry, Jonas didn't tell me he had company over." I tell the raccoon.

  As the racoon slowly steps towards me, he says, "That fucker must have thought he was going to have you all to himself." he turns towards the stairs and yells, "Azure! The new roomie's here."

  Roomie? Wait, this guy and someone upstairs also lives here? I'm living here with 3 other people? What the hell, Jonas.

  "So where's Jonas? Did he scare you off already?" the raccoon asks me.

  "Um, he should be here with pizza any minute now." I say to the raccoon.

  "Right." he says with a long breath before pausing. "Oh dear, where are my manners?" he extends a paw to me as if to shake mine. "I'm Martin. The yote upstairs is Azure."

  I grab Martin's paw to shake it, "I'm Adrian."

  A coyote who I assume is Azure slowly walks down the stairs. They're wearing cozy pajamas and a sweater, similar to the one I'm wearing. Their fur is light grey with white accents, and their paw sleeves are charcoal black.

  "Hello." Azure greets me with as little enthusiasm as possible.

  I shyly wave my paw, "Hey, I'm Adrian. It's nice to meet you."

  Azure responds as they walk past us, going into the kitchen, "Likewise."

  "Don't fill up just yet." Martin tells Azure, walking into the kitchen behind them. "Jonas is getting pizza."

  "Couldn't he have done that a while ago?" Azure asks.

  "Maybe if Jonas didn't spend two hours trying to get our new roommate here." Martin tells Azure before looking at me. "By the way, why aren't you with him? I would have thought if he was giving you the grand tour, he'd at least make you get pizza with him."

  I reply nervously, "I uh- I sorta ran off from him to find someone I met in Building 0 who jumped off Stratosylum."

  Martin is now looking at me as if I said something insane; which, if you think about it, really does sound insane. Azure just pulled a bottle of some kind of red juice out of the fridge before drinking it right out of the bottle, completely disconnected from our conversation.

  I hear the chime from the front door before Jonas opens it while holding three boxes of pizza.

  "Hey guys!" he greets us as he manages the door with his one paw as his other is balancing the pizza boxes.

  Martin looks at me and asks, "Shouldn't you go help him?"

  I rush over to Jonas, taking the pizza boxes with both of my paws from his one.

  "Where do you want these?" I ask Jonas.

  He points towards the kitchen, "Just set them anywhere in there. Thank you."

  I carried the pizza boxes into the kitchen and found a spot on the counter where I could set them down. The counter has enough room for me to set the boxes next to each other so that I could open each of them. Jonas got one cheese pizza, one pepperoni with ham, and a veggie pizza.

  "I got the veggie pizza cause I wasn't sure if you ate meat or not. If you don't eat it, that's okay, Martin will eat it." Jonas tells me as he's grabbing paper plates from a cupboard.

  "Next time we get a cute roommate, I'm going to give them the tour since you can't keep a leash on them." Martin says to Jonas.

  "A, we can only have up to four roommates. And B, please don't creep Adrian out. He just got here." says Jonas.

  Jonas sets the stack of paper plates on a small dining table. Azure immediately picks one and grabs three slices of cheese pizza before going back upstairs to their room with no words to share.

  "Are they okay?" I ask Jonas.

  He nods and replies, "Yeah. They're just not very social. But please, grab whatever pizza you like and take a seat out in the living room. We got lots to talk about."

  I take a paper plate from the top of the small stack of them on the table. Looking at the pizza, I decided I'll take one slice of the meat pizza and a slice of the veggie pizza. Jonas pulled a few boxes of generic, Stratosylum branded soda from their fridge. He grabbed cola, lime soda, and a cherry soda.

  "I apologize, Adrian. We only have three flavors of soda. I'll show you where we get groceries tomorrow. But for now, what would you like to drink?" Jonas asks me.

  "I'm assuming the lime soda is just Sprite?" I ask.

  Jonas nods and pulls one out of the box.

  "Thanks." I say as I grab the can of 'lime soda' from his paw.

  With my plate of pizza and my drink, I walk into the living room from the kitchen. There's a TV against the right side wall of the living room with a sofa right across from it. In the back wall, next to where the sofa meets the wall is a back patio door made of glass. I can see a picnic table and a grill on the other side of the patio door. The room itself has Christmas lights draped across the ceiling and model cars on shelves. Jonas moves a bean bag chair from the opposite side of the living room next to the TV so that he is seated across from the sofa where Martin lays along the end closest to the back wall, occupying two of the three spaces on the sofa. Assuming Azure is going to stay in their room, the only place I can really sit is on the sofa next to Martin's foot paws.

  I take my seat on the sofa, resting my pizza on my lap as I open my soda before taking a sip and placing it in the cup holder built into the right armrest of the sofa.

  "So tell me, Adrian, what happened down there that got a hottie like yourself up here?" Martin asks.

  Jonas interjects, "Only if you are comfortable sharing, Adrian." he looks over at Martin. "And Martin, you don't need to flirt with everyone."

  Martin rolls his eyes.

  "Well, uhm-" I pause, trying to think of the best way to reflect on my life. "I was already at a low point in my life. My former roommate asked me to leave the apartment while he was hosting D&D with his friends. I guess I bummed them out too much the last time so he wanted me to step out. And uhh-"

  I continue to tell them what happened.