My head is spinning. One too many of those flaming drinks. Oof. How many did I have? I survey the room around me. A neat orderly room, with various golem crystals and parts on the shelves and desk. A weapons collection hung on the far wall, opposite a bookshelf filled with the latest issues of Golemancy Today and other assorted manuals. A wave of relief washes over me as I recognize the items around me. It's all mine, I'm back in my room in Rata Sum. Thank the eternal alchemy for small favors.

Last night . . . was fun. Well, not the information that I'm going to a fancy dinner party, but spending time with Gixx was surprising. Get a few drinks in him, and that dry humor of his comes out in full. I get out of bed and strip out of my clothes from the night before. Too tired (or drunk) to undress properly I guess.

I step into my personal decontamination and cleansing utility room (PeDACUR). Humans have their bathtubs and all assortment of soaps and perfumes, but we asura have perfected cleanliness. I hop into my PeDACUR, and I'm blasted with a short stream of lukewarm water, magically treated and purified. It's followed up by quick flash of low-level arcane energy, enough to disintegrate any dirt and make my skin feel unnaturally warm. Perfectly safe, if a bit of a harsh awakening.

As I step out, I grab a towel to dry the few parts of me that are still a bit damp. The PeDACUR always left my hair a little dry, but somehow still wet behind the ears. My thoughts drift to last night again. I know Gixx told me more details about this dinner, but it was fuzzy. We're both going because he promised this long-time benefactor nobleman I'd show, and we're to meet at the gate hub in Lion's Arch then go over together.

This meant I'll have to re-plan my entire day. To make up for my planned date yesterday, I was going to double down today in my projects. Now I have even less time to do all the things that I needed to do:

Write at least 1 chapter of my novel

Finish working on mini-golem

Continue refinement of the VOED

Convince Kozzack to get a collar or harness for Shrieksy

But before I can do any of that, I need to get breakfast.

I hastily throw on some clothes, pull back my hair and give myself a look over in a mirror. I appear a little hungover, but passable for the public. As I exit my room, I make my way up the stairs to the Apprentice Carrels. Housing units are always short on space, so most had a PeDACUR or a kitchen, rarely both and often neither. I'd opted for the former, as I'd learned in my college years how invaluable having a personal cleansing unit was (helps to avoid any walks of shame to the communal washing areas or general mishaps). Although I do miss having a kitchen, I can always cook at the Lab, or grab something to eat from one of the local businesses. I decide to go for take out. I head to my favorite place, and ask for the Hangover special.

The waitress winks at me. "Had a busy night I take it?" she asks.

" . . . no idea." I'm not a morning person, at least not until I'm properly nourished and hydrated. That wink was strange.

She sets my food in front of me, and I go into it voraciously. Asura aren't much for table manners. As long as you don't talk with your mouth full, we really don't care what you do at the table. My father told me it was because we're far too focused on the important things (science! discoveries! Making sure everyone knew how great you were because of said science and discoveries!) than worrying about if how we're eating offends, but I'm sure its just because we lack proper grinding molars. Our lovely razor-sharp teeth are a prime example of evolutionary adaptation, but not so good at chewing.

As I finish ripping into my plate of mutton and eggs, a familiar face comes up beside me.

"Gorr! You here to take me up on my offer of a meal?" Gotta take a chance right? I wiped a stray piece of food from my lips. "Too bad I'm almost done though."

"Er, no. Actually I wanted to ask you something in private."

Private? The way he said it gave me the impression it wasn't something nice.

I put down the silver to pay for my meal, then we walk off a ways from the rest of the populace. When we were sure we were out of earshot, he began to talk again.

"This . . . isn't easy to say but . . . could you not come around my lab?" he asked.

Oh. OH. I guess I pushed too hard yesterday. For Vekk's sake, why couldn't I just pull back and try to play it cool for once? I have a habit of being direct and pushing for what I want, which works great on golems, not so much on other sentient beings. Sometimes I forget that. Maybe he had some interest before, but now I'd miscalculated and possibly ruined a potential relationship before it even started.

He senses I was uncomfortable, and he spoke again. "I'm flattered by the attention, but . . . I just don't have time for any personal commitments now. I'm just too busy."

"Yes, you're pretty busy. I won't come around anymore! Good luck with your endeavors!" I move away as quickly as I can without resorting to running.

He reaches out and looks as if he is about to say something, but remains silent as I scurry off. I got turned down, and with the old "I'm just too busy right now" excuse. Everyone and their krewe leader's mothers use that line to "gently" let down a suitor they weren't interested in. As every asura knows, you're never NOT busy, between krewe work, personal projects and family obligations. I'm an attractive, intelligent asura! It should not be this hard to get a date.

What hurts the most is not knowing WHY he turned me down, why he didn't even want to give me a chance. The reason can't be my intelligence, because that was just laughable. Are you sure? You couldn't even get away from Gixx yesterday! Best to ignore the self-doubt. I've got gorgeous purple-pink eyes and I'm in perfect physical condition- It's because your ears are too small. NO THEY'RE NOT, not anymore!

Skritt-ears.

Bad memories came flooding back to me from pre-college. It took me longer than the others for my ears to grow out. My ears were small and round, and yes, looked a lot like a skritt's. The mocking had driven me to create my Val-A golem, to show that though my ears might have looked like a Skritt's, I certainly didn't have the intelligence of one.

I can't tell you how many times when I was in college I measured them nightly, worried about the one thing that was sub-par about myself. I tried all manner of ear lengthening devices, which I'm still embarrassed about thinking back on it. Of course my ears eventually grew out to an acceptably average length (no thanks to those ear lengthening devices, they're all a scam), and the name-calling stopped.

I ran off without any direction in mind, but found myself in front of the Applied Development Lab gate. My lab gate. I can just do what I did back then; lose myself in my work. As a bonus, I already have the perfect project that needs my attention.

I blink away the half-formed tears in my eyes, straighten up and go through the gate with head held high.

Author's Notes: I hope in the future Anet goes more in depth on asuran living conditions. Right now all I've got is speculation and head canons, and I'd love to have something more concrete. Living in a large contained area with a finite amount of space (can they add on to the actual cube?), I assume that communal living is key. Rooms in Rata Sum would be like living in those japanese capsule hotels, or like that one Singapore area of Deus Ex:HR. Only people with high standing, or willing to wheel and deal get rooms with a lot of space and extra amenities. On the subject of ears, go google Oggy in GW1. I figure that short ear length is worse for males than for females, but still something that they're self-conscious about.