Based on the GeoGuessr game, which I got pretty into during the covid times 😅
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There was little more comforting than a game of GeoSwapr during those times when Richard struggled to sleep. The quiet sonder of it - all those fleeting glimpses into other users' lives around the globe.
And fleeting was right. He'd gotten his average down to 46 seconds, which he was proud of. He hadn't bothered to learn the meta that the high-ranking players used - couldn't tell his Slovakian road signs from his Slovenian - but he had a good eye for detail and was starting to learn the flags and languages.
He leaned forward in his chair as the round booted up, the study fading away. The HUD in his vision informed him that over a thousand users were stuck on this round - it must be a hard one. The first few seconds, as his senses synched with the neural implants of the user on the far side of the world, were crucial for getting a good score.
The sun was warm on his face, but the air was cool... early morning, perhaps... a European time zone. He tasted butter and fresh black coffee on his tongue. The body felt female, and the fluidity of the joints made him think early twenties. Not often useful for pinpointing the location, but still useful to know.
The visual data was the last to arrive: a café on the side of a broad boulevard. He experienced the user tucking a strand of dark hair back behind her cybernetic implant as a waiter approached and spoke to her in French. She laughed lightly, pausing to brush croissant crumbs off her blouse, which drew the young man's eye. He felt the cool morning air blow over the sensitive skin of his exposed chest. The Eiffel Tower rose above the Parisian architecture.
The game prompted him for his first guess. The thousand users inhabiting her brain were stumped, unable to progress to the next round until they accurately guessed the city. He fumbled through the sensory feed to find his keyboard back in his study.
“Berlin,” he typed.
This was not going to do his averages any favors.