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Realities

Antiparadisia
Arboria
Aquarius
Drome
Grep
Grünwald
I's Land
Nippon
Nocturn
Pia Pia
Reality Prime / RealWare
Restless
SubUrbana
Tribal Alpha
Urbana
- ConsuTopia
  MegaShopping
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People (& Orgs.)

Campers
D3THL0RDZ
Open Reality Movement
Ninja Clans
Normalizers *
(The Society for Normal Reality)
Reality Adepts *
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Steel Blades

Terms & Tech

"Blue Sky of Death, The"
(And other RealWare problems)
Docks
Multiverse
NullSpace
Open Engines
Passport Processing *
Points (Economy)
Realities
RealNet
Reality Adepts *
Reality Engines (for Mobiles)
Reality Engines (for Realities)
Reality Engineers
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RealWare *
REC Test
Safety Mode (see BSOD)
Transients

Culture

original unreal estate
series and core content
copyright 2004 stefan gagne
please see faq for usage
and legal information

Onsen-of-the-Month

Onsens are a tradition established in Nippon that has grown in popularity, at least in worlds where people can handle looking at each other naked without running off screaming religious rhetoric or developing unusual growth below the waistline.

The idea is this: Taking a shower does nothing to reduce your stress. Warm water is nice, but having to stand up for the whole thing is a pain in the ass so people take as little time as they can to get it done. Baths are okay, but sitting in some tiny little tub where you can barely stretch your legs is annoying. So, we take the best part about baths -- soaking in hot water and relaxing -- and move it to a hot spring just deep enough to sit down and soak in and enjoy. Make it a naturalistic setting with rock and fountains and steam and such and you've got an Onsen.

Of course, the best kind of Onsen is the natural kind -- where hot water bubbles up normally and the rocks are real and so on. There's no reason why an expertly crafted artificial one should be inferior... but somehow, it just FEELS that way. Why go to some fake Onsen installed in your home reality just because it's relatively trendy, when you can get the real deal on a subscription basis?

Enter Onsen-of-the-Month, a company based in Nippon. They've created a pocket reality all their own that's 100% onsens. Big ones. Little ones. Fancy ones. Simple ones. And for a certain (pricey) amount of money, you get an experimental Reality Engine powered DOOR that you can prop against a wall and use to access a new Onsen each month. One that you and only you have access to, unless you change the settings to visit a community Onsen.

Considering this is a wholly new application of reality technology (and one prone to failure, which means the Onsen might not be accessable from time to time), the cost of a monthly subscription is scary. But those who have the financial means usually subscribe without hesitation after the free samples that reality-to-reality OotM salesmen offer. In the modern life of workaday stress, having an outlet can be a survival requirement, not a luxury.

It is common to play Ping Pong after a good soak in an Onsen. There's no amazing philosophical reason behind this, it's just a hobby that Ryo Noyori of Noyori Labs enjoys (along with most of the multiverse), and since the company offers free pong gear with every new sale, others followed the example.

You may not destroy the Onsen-of-the-Month. (Individual doors can break or be destroyed, and you can define any specific onsen you want.) Noyori Labs will remain the owner of the technology and systems, and it will operate as specified.